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Presented    by         c3r\£^    (_y\w\-VV\  o\~. 


BL  80  .B53  1906 

Bierer,  Everard,  b.  1827. 

The  evolution  of  religions 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/evolutionofreligOObier 


The 
Evolution  of  Religions 


Everard    Bierer 


"  Prove  all  things  ;  hold  fast  that  which  is  good.' 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 

Zbe  IRnicherbocftcr  Press 

1906 


Copyright,  1906 

By 

EVERARD    BIERER 


Ubc  Iftnicfterbocftfcr  press,  ■new  ffiorft 


PREFACE 

DURING  a  long  life  occupied  mostly  in  the 
practice  of  law,  I  have  spent  much  of  my 
leisure  time,  and  especially  since  largely  quitting 
practice  in  the  last  few  years,  in  the  study  of  the 
systems  of  religion  of  the  world  and  of  religious 
literature,  both  ancient  and  modem.  The  Bible 
I  have  studied  most  thoroughly,  and  am  well 
versed  in  the  Buddhist  Scriptures,  the  Zend 
Avesta  of  Zoroaster,  the  Analects  of  Confucius 
and  Mencius,  and  the  Koran,  and  have  read  the 
Book  of  Mormon,  Brahmanic  literature,  and  his- 
tory generally,  ancient  and  modem. 

In  this  volume  I  have  frankly  embodied  my 
religious  convictions,  not  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing converts  to  my  views  or  to  seek  notoriety, 
but  simply  to  teach  the  truth  according  to  these 
convictions.  I  presume  I  shall  offend  many  who 
may  read  it,  and  be  denounced  bitterly  by  all 
those  whose  religious  opinions  differ  from  mine 
and  are  mainly  the  result  of  environment  and 
habits  rather  than  convictions,  but  I  have  no 
apologies  to  make.  Truth  will  win  its  way 
sooner  or  later.  If  my  conclusions  are  erroneous, 
they  deserve  obscurity;  if  correct,  they  must  be 
good  and  will  stand  the  test  of  fuller  and  more 


iv  Preface 

critical  investigations.  For  defects  of  style  and 
dullness  of  expression,  I  ask  the  charity  of  those 
who  may  peruse  this  book,  and  courteously  ask 
their  pardon  for  having  unduly  indulged,  if  I 
have  done  so,  in  any  harsh  or  unkind  criticism 
in  reference  to  any  denominations,  ministers,  or 
religious  writers. 

Hiawatha,    Kansas.  E.    B. 

September,  1906. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

I.  A  General  Review  of  Religions i 

Questions  fundamental  to  Judaism  and  Christianity 
—  Outlines  of  ancient  religions,  Zoroastrianism, 
Brahmanism,  Judaism,  Confucianism,  Christianity, 
Mohammedanism,  and  old  mythologies  —  Refer- 
ences to  Herodotus,  Zenophon,  Manetho,  Demos- 
thenes, Socrates,  Aristotle,  Plato,  Cicero,  Julius 
Caesar,  Seneca  —  Those  great  men  did  not  worship 
idols — Six  great  religions  of  the  world  —  Other 
religions  merely  abnormal  —  Melchizedek,  priest 
of  the  Most  High,  like  unto  the  Son  of  God, 
prophet  of  the  first  religion  and  teacher  of  Zoroaster 
and  Abraham — Ahura  Mazda  or  Ormuzd,  God 
of  the  Zoroastrian  religion  —  Angro-Mainyus, 
evil  God  of  the  Persians,  and  Satan  of  the  Jews 
and  Christians  —  Theory  of  evolution  of  reli- 
gions—  Apocryphal  Books  of  Bible. 

II.  Comparisons  of    Modern  Systems  of    Reli- 

gions          i6 

ist.  Buddhism  —  Its  devotees  in  Asia  one-third  of 
the  human  race  —  2d.  Christianity  —  Roman 
Catholic  —  Protestant  and  Greek  Church  divi- 
sions—  3d.  Confucianism  —  4th.  Mohammedan- 
ism—  5th.  Judaism — 6th.  Zoroastrianism  —  7th. 
Mormonism  —  Judaism  —  Christianity  —  Moham- 
medanism and  Mormonism  —  Cognate  or  related — 
The  ancient  Mythological  and  Polytheistic  sys- 
tems of  religion  were  the  evolutions  of  gross  and 
debasing  ideas,  fantasies,  and  superstitions,  now 
extinct  —  Their  Gods  and  Goddesses  were  gross, 


vi  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

sensual,  subject  to  human  passions ;  all  more  or 
less  limited  in  power  —  Legends  of  the  Garden  of 
Eden,  the  Fall  of  Adam  and  Eve,  the  Serpent,  and 
similar  legends  in  the  religions  of  Egypt,  Persia, 
and  India. 

III.  Ancient   Christianity 44 

Triumph  of  Christianity  over  Roman  Idolatry 
315  A.D.  under  Constantine  the  Great — All 
churches  then  independent  —  No  Pope  — Arianism 
or  Unitarianism  nearly  universal  —  A  triune  Deity 
unknown  —  The  doctrines  of  the  early  Christians, 
the  same  as  taught  by  Arius,  Pelagius,  Celestius  — 
Trinitarianism  established  by  Council  of  Nice 
325  A.D.  and  of  Carthage  411  a.d.  —  Admixture  of 
Pagan  customs  and  interpolations  and  corrup- 
tions in  text  of  Scriptures,  dates  from  those  times  — 
Apocryphal  Books  of  Old  Testament  and  Apoc- 
alyptic dreams  of  St.  John  admitted  into  Canon  — 
Amazing  legends  and  miracles  believed  and  taught 
during  Dark  Ages  —  A  general  awakening  and 
restoration  of  Bible  truths  in  the  nineteenth  century 
by  teachings  of  Max  Miiller,  Dr.  Channing,  Dr. 
Priestley,  Theodore  Parker,  Julius  Wellhausen, 
Strauss,  Renan,  Rev.  I.  H.  Mills,  Dr.  Savage, 
Dr.  Chas.  Briggs  and  others  —  Jesus  divinely  sent, 
but  not  God  —  The  nineteenth  a  grand  century. 

IV.  Modern  Religions 53 

Population  of  the  world  in  1905  and  number  of  be- 
lievers in  modern  religions  tabulated  —  Short 
sketches  of  Brahmanism  and  Mohammedanism  — 
The  Koran  is  an  Arabian  poem  —  Some  extracts 
from  it — Mormonism  and  its  founder — Confu- 
cianism—  Exposition  of  the  Zend-Avesta,  and 
sketch  of  Zoroaster  —  His  religion,  once  the  great 
religion  of  Asia,  now  only  existing  among  the 
Parsees  of   India  —  Tom   Moore   and   the  "Fire 


Contents  vii 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

Worshippers,"  in  Lalla  Rookh.  —  The  dual 
deities  of  the  Babylonian  Magi  —  No  such  being 
as  Satan  exists  —  Zoroaster  and  Buddha,  both 
princes  of  royal  blood  —  Zoroaster's  creed  or  seven 
commandments  —  The  Avesta  or  "  Living  Words  " 
—  Moses  and  Zoroaster  compared. 

V.    Buddhism  —  The  Trinity,  etc 75 

Sakya-Manu  Gautama  or  Buddha  —  Commandments 
of  Buddha  —  Buddha  and  Jesus  compared  — 
The  holy  Books — ^Tri  Pitakas,  or  "Three  Bas- 
kets," of  Buddhism  —  Development  of  the  world 
in  past  200  years,  due  to  the  grand  Anglo-Saxon 
and  Germanic  branch  of  the  Aryan  race  — 
European  Christianity  from  325  a.d.  to  1700,  com- 
pared to  Buddhist  and  Confucianist  countries  of 
Asia  —  Wars  and  religious  persecutions  in  Europe 
during  those  1400  years  —  The  quintette  of  proph- 
ets, Zoroaster,  Moses,  Confucius,  Buddha,  and 
Jesus  Christ;  each  inspired  of  God  —  The  Trinity 
not  taught  in  the  Bible,  and  that  doctrine  has  kept 
Jews  and  Christians  from  religious  union  —  Count 
Tolstoi's  creed  —  Max  Miiller  and  Dr.  Briggs 
teach  that  inspiration  from  God  was  given  to  the 
founders  of  the  other  monotheistic  religions  of 
the  world  as  well  as  to  Jewish  prophets  and 
Apostles  of  Christ  —  All  religions  teach  some 
divine  truths  —  Doctrines  of  future  life  and  resur- 
rection not  taught  in  the  Old  Testament — Many 
of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  written  by 
anonymous  or  pseudonymous  authors  —  Religions 
of  Old  and  New  Testament  not  sr<i  Generis  —  The 
Hebrew  sacrifices  Pagan  abominations  and  not 
types  of  Jesus  —  The  Trinity  derived  from  Egyp- 
tian and  Hindoo  mythologies  and  originated  with 
Athanasius  and  St.  Augustine  —  The  Trinity 
repudiated  by  Mohammed  —  Rawlinson's  "His- 
torical  Evidences  of   Christianity,"  unreliable—: 


viii  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

The  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  a  paralysis  in  Christian 
work  —  No  mediator  between  God  and  man  and 
no  atonement  required. 

VI.  Consideration  of  Miracles 98 

It  does  not  follow  that  because  the  history  and  ethics 
of  the  Bible  are  true,  its  miraculous  narratives  are 
facts  and  not  legends  and  myths —  Miracles  of  all 
other  religions  not  believed  by  Jews  and  Chris- 
tians—  Argument  about  miracles  —  Many  Bible 
miracles  considered  —  If  miracles  occurred  in 
ancient  times,  why  not  now?  —  If  such  miracles 
were  performed,  God  would  have  surrounded 
them  with  such  evidences  that  none  could  disbe- 
lieve—  The  crossings  of  the  Red  Sea  and  River 
Jordan,  and  miraculous  feeding  of  the  Israelites  in 
the  Desert  of  Arabia,  considered  —  In  the  reign  of 
Josiah,  King  of  Judah,  B.C.  634,  the  Books  of  the 
Torah  and  Prophets  had  long  been  lost  and  for- 
gotten, and  but  one  copy  was  accidentally  found  in 
all  Israel  —  The  Mormons  believe  in  all  the  mira- 
cles related  in  the  Mormon  Bible,  without  any 
evidence  for  them  — History  of  the  Book  of  Mor- 
mon. 

VII.  Internal  Biblical  Evidence  of  Miracles.     118 

Discussion  of  the  subject  —  The  Hebrew  Bible 
mainly  compiled  by  one  person,  probably  Ezra, 
after  the  Restoration  —  Bible  Books  written  after 
the  Exile  —  Biblical  Canon  made  by  Pope  Innocent 
ist  405  A.D.  —  Apocryphal  Books  incorporated  in 
Canon  by  him  —  Jewish  traditions  of  the  Mishna 
and  Talmud  — No  inspired  selection  of  Biblical 
Canonical  Books  — What  Julius  Wellhausen  says 
about  Biblical  Books  —  Also  what  Rabbi  Berkowitz 
says — Consideration  of  the  Bible  story  of  Crea- 
tion—Myth of  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  Serpent 
and   the   Fall  —  No    such    region  of  earth    ever 


Contents  ix 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

known  to  exist  —  If  the  story  of  the  Fall  is  a  fact, 
God  permitted  Satan  to  come  into  the  Garden  of 
Eden  and  knew  what  he  would  do — He  pre- 
vented Adam  and  Eve  from  eating  the  fruit  of  the 
Tree  of  Life  —  And  so  the  tragedy  and  its  con- 
sequences were  God's  will,  according  to  Ortho- 
doxy—  The  atonement  of  Christ  was  provided,  to 
save  myriads  of  those  doomed  in  the  Fall  to  eternal 
death  by  God's  permissive  will,  if  Orthodoxy  is 
true  —  Consideration  of  the  entire  Orthodox 
scheme  —  The  scheme  rejected  as  mythical  and 
contrary  to  God's  attributes  —  God  pardons  sins 
freely  upon  repentance —  No  atonement  necessary 
or  taught  in  the  Bible  —  Without  Eden's  myth, 
the  whole  structure  of  Orthodoxy  falls  —  Theologi- 
cal works  of  Athanasius,  St.  Augustine,  John 
Calvin,  and  I'ev.  Jonathan  Edwards  reviewed. 

VIII.  Internal  Evidence   of    Miracles  —  con- 
tinued        151 

Some  biblical  miracles  are  grand  and  appropriate 
as  works  of  Deity  —  Some  inappropriate  and  fabu- 
lous—  No  outside  historical  or  monumental  corrob- 
oration of  miracles  —  The  plagues  of  Egypt, 
conquest  of  Canaan,  barbarity  of  the  Israelites  — 
Some  iniquitous  laws  in  the  Mosaic  Code  —  Jesus 
said  the  Law  of  Divorce  was  Moses'  law,  not  God's 
—  Law  as  to  punishment  of  seducer  of  bond- 
maiden,  unjustly  favoring  seducer  —  The  Hebrew 
Sacrificial  Code  and  rites  could. not  have  been  es- 
tablished by  God  —  Some  thoughts  on  the  miracles 
of  the  sun  and  moon  standing  still  —  Story  of  Sam- 
son—  Samson  was  Hebrew-Hercules  —  Story  of 
Jonah  and  the  whale. 

IX.  The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation,  etc 169 

The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity — God  could  not  be 
tempted  by  Satan,  and  as  man  such  temptation  ol 


X  Contents 

CHAPTER  PACK 

Jesus  availed  nothing  —  Analysis  of  the  story  — 
There  was  no  power  for  example  to  others  in  Jesus' 
temptation  —  The  story  is  derogatory  to  characters 
of  God  and  Jesus —  Some  New  Testament  miracles 
analyzed  —  Melchizedek  and  Zoroaster  the  same 
person  —  Battle  of  Jeroboam,  King  of  Israel,  in  B.C. 
957,  with  army  of  Judah,  in  which  500,000  men 
of  Jeroboam's  army  are  said  to  have  been  killed, 
incredible  —  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  1863  —  De- 
struction of  Assyrian  army  of  Sennacherib. 

X.   Orthodoxy  :  The  Trinity,  etc 186 

Consideration  of  the  doctrines  —  Jesus'  teachings  do 
not  inculcate  them  —  Up  to  Council  of  Nicea  325 
A.D.,  Arianism  was  mainly  the  Christian  Doctrine 
—  The  Creed  of  Orthodoxy  was  finally  formulated 
by  Anselm,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  England, 
about  1 100  A. D.  —  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards'  teach- 
ings discussed —  Our  Canonical  Gospels  written 
about  the  close  of  ist  century  a.d. — A  number 
of  other  Apocryphal  Gospels  then  written,  and 
many  miraculous  stories  of  Jesus  —  The  Monasti- 
cism  of  the  second,  third,  and  fourth  centuries  — 
Descent  of  Joseph  from  David  shown  by  Evange- 
lists Matthew  and  Luke,  but  no  genealogy  of  Mary, 
the  mother  of  Jesus,  is  given,  nor  any  evidence 
that  she  was  descended  from  King  David  —  The 
story  of  the  taxing  by  Cyrenius  and  birth  of  Jesus 
at  Bethlehem  —  Jesus  was  born  at  Nazareth  —  The 
dogmas  of  the  Immaculate  Conception  of  the  Vir- 
gin Mary  and  of  the  Infallibility  of  the  Pope,  pro- 
mulgated at  same  time  by  Pope  Pius  IX,  a.d. 
1854. 

XL    Religious  Miscellanies 218 

Internal  evidences  of  biblical  inspirations  —  Com- 
parisons of  some  contradictory  passages  —  Some 
commands  ascribed  to  God  contrary  to  His  attri- 


Contents  xi 

CHAPTER  FAGB 

butes  —  Some  incidents  in  Evangelists'  Life  of 
Jesus  and  some  of  His  teachings  commented  upon 
—  First  Christians  were  Communists  —  The  Old 
Testament  taught  not  of  resurrection  and  immor- 
tality—  Jesus  Christ  first  brought  life  and  immor- 
tality to  light. 

XII.  Second  Adventists  and  Connection  of 
Secret  Orders  with  the  Supernatural  in 
Religions 232 

People  love  mystery  and  the  supernatural  —  Predic- 
tions of  the  destruction  of  the  world  and  final 
judgment  in  a.d.  iooo  —  Predicted  Second 
Advent  of  1S43  —  Millerism  —  Great  consternation 
in  the  United  States  —  Swinefurth's  Heaven  at 
Rockford,  Illinois  —  During  the  Middle  Ages  one- 
half  of  property  in  Europe  belonged  to  Catholic 
Church  —  Connection  of  Secret  Societies  with 
Religions  in  Hindustan,  China,  Egypt,  Greece, 
Rome,  and  Europe  —  Eleusinian  Mysteries  and 
Delphic  Oracles — Jewish  orders  of  Nazarites,  Re- 
chabites,  Essenes,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  — 
Mohammedan  Dervishes  —  Christian  orders  of 
Masons,  Knights  Templars,  Knights  of  Red  Cross, 
Hospitallers,  etc.  —  Jaques  De  Molay,  Grand-Mas- 
ter of  Templars,  burned  alive  in  France  in  1314 
A.  D.  —  Present  orders  of  Knighthood  —Catholic 
orders  of  Monks  of  St.  Augustine,  Franciscans, 
Benedictines,  Dominicans,  and  Jesuits  —  Scottish 
Trinitarian  and  Consistorial  Degrees  —  Sketch  of 
Masonic  history  —  Blue  Lodge,  Royal  Arch  Chap- 
ter—  Their  teachings,  mystic  rites,  etc.  —  Masonry 
an  auxiliary  of  the  Bible  —  Its  organizers  knew 
no  more  of  Jewish  history,  of  Solomon,  Hiram, 
King  of  Tyre,  Hiram  Abiff,  the  Temple  building, 
than  the  Bible  taught —  Modern  Masonic  order  of 
the  Mystic  Shrine. 


xii  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XIII.  Satan 247 

Ancient  names  of  Satan  —  Does  such  a  being  exist? 
Legend  of  Eden  and  the  Serpent — Jewish  belief 
in  Satan  derived  from  the  Zoroastrian  teachings 
and  Babylonia,  Magi  during  the  Exile  —  According 
to  the  logic  of  the  Orthodox  Creed,  God  is  respon- 
sible for  Satan's  work  —  If  Orthodox  tenets  are 
true,  Adam  and  Eve  were  not  free  agents,  nor  are 
their  posterity  —  Human  beings  are  now  as  they 
ever  were  —  Sin  and  death  inseparable  from  human 
nature  —  Orthodoxy  makes  Satan  omniscient  and 
omnipresent  —  With  Satan  and  his  angels  ever 
tempting   them,    human   beings  cannot  but  sin  — 

■  Existence  of  Satan  and  hell,  contrary  to  God's  at- 
tributes—  Orthodox  ideas  of  hell  —  Sermons  of 
Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards  on  eternal  punishment 
versus  Rev.  M.  J.  Savage's  teachings  —  The  hell 
of  Orthodox  Christianity  no  longer  believed  in, 
even  by  the  Orthodox  —  Supposed  New  Testa- 
ment teachings  of  election,  predestination,  fore- 
ordination,  etc.,  discussed  —  New  Testament 
teachings  have  been  perverted  —  Ultimate  Uni- 
versal salvation  believed  to  be  God's  plan  and  in 
accordance  with  His  attributes. 

XIV.  Universal  Salvation 287 

Life  but  a  probation  and  all  will  ultimately  enjoy 
God's  boundless  mercy,  after  just  punishment  for 
sins  —  The  question  of  the  Hebrew  sacrifices  as 
types  of  the  Savior's  atonement  and  of  Jesus' 
atonement,  considered  —  Sacrifices  were  not  types 
of  Jesus'  death  and  were  not  approved  of  by  Him 
or  by  God  —  They  were  simply  the  adoption  by  the 
Israelites,  of  the  sacrificial  customs  of  surrounding 
nations  —  Jesus'  death  was  not  an  atoning  sacri- 
fice devised  by  God,  but  a  ruthless  murder  —  All 
Jesus'  mission  was  outlined  in  His  sermon  on  Mt. 
Olivet  —  He    never    taught    the    Trinity  —  Many 


Contents  xiii 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

changes  and  interpolations  put  in  the  Bible  on 
that  subject — The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  first 
formally  adopted  by  Council  of  Nicea  in  325  A.  D. 
—  Extract  from  sermon  of  Rev.  J.  E.  Roberts  on 
the  Trinity. 

XV.  Summary  of  Biblical  Criticism 296 

The  ethics  of  the  Bible  bear  the  seal  of  Divine  in- 
spiration—  The  prophets  were  inspired  to  teach 
moral  truths,  but  not  history,  geology,  or  astron- 
omy—  The  ribald  Commentaries  of  Voltaire,  Rous- 
seau, Paine,  and  Ingersoll  have  not  materially 
weakened  its  usefulness  —  Still  there  are  errors  in 
the  Bible,  historical  inaccuracies,  interpolations, 
legendary  miracles,  poetic  fictions  —  The  Jewish 
Talmudists  thought  it  right  to  change  any  text 
in  the  Bible,  in  the  interests  of  Judaism  —  Igna- 
tius Loyola,  founder  of  the  Order  of  Jesuits,  taught 
that  ancient  traditions  were  sometimes  superior  to 
Bible  text  —  We  do  not  need  to  be  Non-resistants, 
Communists,  or  Adventists  to  be  Christians. 

XVI.  A  General  Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis.  .  .  .     303 

The  Creation  of  the  world  went  on  for  many  thou- 
sands of  years,  through  long  Archaic,  Paleozoic, 
Mesozoic,  and  Cenozoic  Ages  —  Various  theories  of 
Creation  —  Man  probably  existed  on  earth  thou- 
sands of  years  before  beginning  of  Bible  Chron- 
ology by  Archbishop  Usher  —  The  six  days  of 
Creation  were  indefinite  ages  —  Authors  of  many 
Bible  Books  unknown  —  Commentaries  on  the 
Bible  Deluge  —  Professor  Agassiz'  Glacial  theory — 
Convulsions  of  and  changes  in  earth  after  Glacial 
Deluge  —  Passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the  Red 
Sea,  the  Arabian  Desert,  and  the  River  Jordan  — 
Miracle  of  the  sun  and  moon  standing  still  a 
poetic  embellishment  of  Joshua  —  Also  the  story  of 
the  manna  and  quails  and  of  the  river  following 


xiv  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGB 

the  Israelite  migration  around  through  the  desert 

—  Balaam  and  the  Ass,  of  the  style  of  the  "  Arabian 
Nights  "  —  The  Drama  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abednego,  and  Nebuchadnezzar's  furnace  —  Com- 
ments on  the  Book  of  Esther,  Queen  of  Ahasuerus, 
King  of  Persia  —  A  historic  fiction  —  Lineage  of 
Jesus  Christ  —  Espousals  or  betrothal  of  Joseph 
and  Mary  before  Jesus'  birth  equivalent  to  Jewish 
marriage  —  Some  NewTestament  miracles  —  Com- 
ments upon,  viz.  the  Angel  at  the  Pool  of  Bethesda 

—  Legion  of  devils  going  into  swine  —  Resurrection 
of  many  dead  at  the  Crucifixion  of  Jesus  as  narrated 
by  one  Evangelist,  Matthew  —  Many  gospels  of 
Jesus'  life  yet  extant  —  The  Resurrection  of  Jesus  — 
He  was  an  embodied  spirit  —  His  forty  days  on 
earth  after  Resurrection,  and  his  Ascension  dis- 
cussed—  His  Resurrection  was  a  demonstration 
of  immorta'ity. 

XVII.  The  Divine  Education  of  the  Human  Race  343 

All  nations  are  sharing  in  that  education  now  —  All 
past  and  present  religions  a  part  of  that  training 

—  All  that  history  records  is  a  part  of  such  train- 
ing—  Dr.  Riggs'  views  on  that  subject. 

XVIII.  Miscellaneous  Conclusions 348 

This  the  age  of  greatest  evolution  in  religious 
beliefs — Religious  unrest  among  Parsees,  Jews, 
Brahmans,  Confucianists,  Mohammedans,  and 
Mormons — The  Jewish,  Christian,  Mohammedan, 
and  Mormon  are  cognate  faiths  —  Congresses  of 
Religions  of  World's  Fair,  at  Chicago  in  1893  and 
at  Paris  in  1900,  helped  to  unify  religions  — 
Teachers  of  all  religions  growing  more  liberal  and 
charitable  — God  governs  in  all  things — Consider- 
ation of  future  life —  Human  sins  are  only  finite,  and 
finite  sins  can  only  merit  finite  punishments  —  Ex 
necessitate  rei  future  punishments  must  terminate 


Contents  xv 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

sometime  —  This  life  and  the  future  life  are  one, 
only  under  changed  environments — Punishments 
are  for  reformation,  not  for  vengeance,  in  God's 
economy  —  Doctrines  of  soul-sleeping  and  Nir- 
vana, controverted  —  We  shall  know  in  the  future 
life,  all  we  knew  here  —  Know  and  meet  parents, 
wife,  children,  relatives,  and  friends  —  We  shall 
know  as  we  are  known  forever  —  One  single  soul  lost 
forever  would  be  a  failure  in  God's  economy. 

XIX.    Conclusion 365 

The  Bible  is  the  greatest  and  best  Book  of  earth ; 
we  shall  never  have  abetter  ;  none  will  ever  super- 
sede the  old  one  —  Scanning  the  achievements  of 
the  present  and  future  centuries,  the  conquests  of 
steam,  commerce,  ships,  railroads,  electricity  in  tele- 
graphs, telephones,  etc. —  Scientific  discoveries, 
mechanical  inventions,  etc.,  uniting  all  peoples  into 
neighborhoods  —  Achievements  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  other  European  races  —  The  English  language 
becoming  cosmopolitan  —  The  acquisition  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands  by  the  U.  S.,  the  war  of  1898 
between  the  U.  S.  and  Spain,  and  the  acquisition 
of  Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippine  Islands  —  The 
English  and  Transvaal  war  of  1899-1901  in  South 
Africa,  the  great  war  of  1903-5  between  Russia 
and  Japan  —  All  great  events  in  the  history  of 
the  world  and  its  civilization  and  universal  spread 
of  Christianity  are  hastening  the  day  when  all 
peoples  shall  worship  in  Christian  temples  and  all 
"know  God  even  from  the  least  unto  the  greatest" 
—  Closing  with  the  great  Russian  poet  Derzhavin's 
"Ode  to  Deity." 

Appendix 385 


Evolution    of  Religions 


Evolution   of  Religions 


CHAPTER   I 

A   GENERAL   REVIEW   OF   RELIGIONS 

THE  questions  fundamental  to  Judaism  and 
Christianity  which  are  now  engrossing  the 
attention  of  the  Christian  worid  more  than  ever 
before,  are  the  following: 

1.  The  plenary  inspiration  of  the  scriptures  of 
the  Old  and  New  Testaments. 

2.  The  origin  of  evil  in  the  story  of  the  fall  of 
Adam  and  Eve. 

3.  The  doctrine  of  everlasting  future  punish- 
ment and,  as  corollary  to  that,  the  existence  of  an 
evil  deity  called  Satan. 

4.  The  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  of  God  and,  as 
corollary  to  that,  the  tenet  of  the  vicarious 
sacrifice  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the  atonement  by 
Him. 

5.  The  question  of  miracles  or  supernatural 
occurrences. 

The  author  of  this  book  proposes  to  consider 
these   questions   candidly   as  a   believer  in  the 


2  Evolution  of  Religions 

inspiration  of  the  moral  teachings  of  the  Bible, 
and  totally  unbiased  by  any  sectarian  feeling  or 
influences  —  simply  as  a  seeker  after  and  a  lover 
of  truth.  He  assumes  in  the  outset,  without  any 
discussion  of  them,  the  great  truths  of  the  exist- 
ence and  eternity  of  one  God  who  is  omnipotent, 
omniscient,  and  omnipresent,  all  holy,  loving, 
wise,  and  good,  the  creator  and  governor  of  the 
imiverse.  He  infers  and  believes  from  these 
attributes  of  God  and  the  nature,  character,  and 
environments  of  man,  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Without  a  belief  in  God  and  human  immortality, 
which  are  assumed  as  axiomatic  truths  and  have 
always  been  held  so  by  the  large  majority  of  the 
human  race  in  some  form,  those  other  fimdamen- 
tal  questions  concerning  the  Bible  and  its  teach- 
ings become  of  no  importance;  but  to  believers 
in  God  and  immortality  they  are  of  importance 
paramoimt  to  all  other  considerations  which 
affect  the  relations  of  men  to  God  and  to  one 
another.  Intimately  connected  with  those  ques- 
tions and  their  origin,  growth,  development,  and 
solution,  is  the  evolutionary,  intellectual,  and 
spiritual  progress  of  the  race.  In  the  natural 
world,  the  theory  of  evolution,  or  the  gradual 
organization,  growth,  and  development  of  the 
whole  material  universe :  of  its  sims,  systems,  and 
worlds,  up  through  and  from  all  gradations  and 
departments  of  unorganized  and  organized  matter, 
including  all  vegetable  and  animal  life,  is  now  the 


General  Review  of  Religions         3 

commonly  accepted  belief  of  all  scholars  and 
scientists.  There  was,  of  course,  undoubtedly, 
a  beginning  of  creation  somewhere  and  at  some 
period  in  the  cycles  of  eternity,  when  the  Almighty 
started  the  protoplasmic  forces  and  germ  cells, 
from  the  combinations  and  developments  of 
which  all  things  in  the  universe  have  been  evolved. 
The  processes  of  such  creation,  evolution,  and 
development  are,  so  far,  unknown  to  human  ken 
and  may  ever  be  so  unknown,  but  the  fact  of 
such  creation,  in  the  illimitable  beginning,  and 
of  the  evolution  of  all  things  therefrom,  has  been 
established,  and  is  now  nearly  universally  believed 
by  scientists.  According  to  this  theory,  only  the 
original  elements,  molecules,  or  germs  of  matter 
were  created,  and  infinite  wisdom  and  infinite 
power  brought  into  action  the  mysterious  forces 
which  combined  and  organized  these  atoms  ulti- 
mately through  millions  of  centuries  and  vast 
geologic  ages,  evolving  therefrom  the  imiverse  as 
it  is.  This  process  is  apparently  in  every  way 
as  grand  and  stupendous,  and  certainly  more 
rational  than  the  olden  theory  that  God  created 
all  things  as  they  are  —  simultaneously  and  prac- 
tically instantaneously — by  His  mere  fiat. 

Not  only  has  such  been  the  gradual  process 
of  creation  and  development  in  all  the  realms  of 
the  material  universe,  but  it  has  doubtless  been 
analogous  in  the  domain  of  mind,  in  the  intel- 
lectual and  spiritual  training  and  progress  of  the 


4  Evolution  of  Religions 

human  race.  The  intellectual  evolution  has  been 
slow  and  spasmodic;  often  retarded  and  almost 
obscured  by  periods  of  reaction  and  retrogression, 
as  the  material  progress  of  the  race  also  has 
been.  In  the  spiritual  world,  the  vacillations 
and  changes  have  been  greater.  If  man  in  the 
beginning  of  his  earthly  career  had  any  religious 
knowledge  specially  communicated  to  him  by 
the  Deity,  it  must  have  been  almost  forgotten  in 
the  night  of  intellectual  and  moral  darkness  and 
superstition  which  we  know  existed  universally 
in  the  earliest  periods  of  historic  time.  If  the 
antediluvian  history  of  Genesis  is  credible,  out 
of  a  vast  population  of  the  world  before  the 
Deluge  only  one  family  of  eight  persons  had  any 
knowledge  of,  or  any  faith  in  one  God,  or  perhaps 
in  any  gods,  but  the  rest  were  utterly  steeped  in 
ignorance,  licentiousness,  and  crime.  And  by 
the  same  record,  outside  of  the  Hebrew  Patri- 
archs and  their  households,  we  are  taught  this 
same  condition  was  true  largely  of  the  world  for 
centuries  after  the  Deluge  and  indeed  down  to 
the  advent  of  Christianity,  We  know,  however, 
from  other  secular  histories  that  there  were 
exceptions  to  this  condition  in  Persia,  Northern 
India,  and  China.  Two  thousand  or  two  thou- 
sand five  himdred  years  before  Christ  and  six 
hundred  years  or  more  before  Moses,  the  pure 
monotheistic  faith  of  the  great  Iranian  prophet, 
Zoroaster,  prevailed  in  Central  Asia.      Excepting 


General  Review  of  Religions         5 

in  the  worship  of  the  same  God,  his  religion  and 
the  Mosaic  were  very  dissimilar,  as  hereinafter 
noted.  In  Northern  India  and  China,  five  him- 
dred  years  before  Christ,  the  splendid  teachings  of 
the  great  sages  Buddha  and  Confucius  were 
respectively  the  dominant  religions  and  have  been 
ever  since.  As  we  review  the  entire  history  of 
the  human  race,  if  we  divest  ourselves  of  narrow 
bigotry,  we  can  easily  discover  the  gradual  evo- 
lution of  religions  and  the  progress  of  mankind 
toward  higher  religious  ideals  and  grander  truths; 
sometimes,  indeed,  absorbing  and  requiring  the 
sweep  of  centuries  and  the  contest  of  intellectual 
and  moral  forces  operating  in  long  abeyance  and 
often  under  almost  total  eclipse,  to  record  any 
substantial  progress. 

The  proclamation  of  divine  truth  by  the  great 
Galilean  prophet  introduced  the  most  wonderful 
era  in  moral  and  religious  progress  in  the  history 
of  the  world ;  and  the  evolution  from  the  garnered 
teachings  of  Judaism,  and  all  the  other  old  religions 
then  inaugurated,  but  afterwards  greatly  retarded 
and  almost  extinguished  by  the  superstition  and 
bigotry  of  the  twelve  centuries  of  the  Dark  Ages, 
has  in  the  past  two  centuries  gathered  such 
momentum,  that  most  probably  during  this  new 
century  now  in  its  dawn,  the  banners  of  the  Cross 
will  wave  triumphantly  ov  r  all  countries  of  the 
earth,  proclaiming  the  pure  faith  of  Christianity, 
divested  of  all  superstitions  and  absurd  dogmas, 


6  Evolution  of  Religions 

as  the  final  evolution  of  true  religion.  Perfection, 
surely,  is  to  be  the  ultimate  attainment  of  man 
in  the  divine  economy.  The  olden  dream  of  the 
golden  age  of  earth  has  never  yet  been  realized. 
But  evolution,  development,  progress,  in  the 
intellectual  and  moral  world  as  well  as  in  the 
physical,  have  always  been  imder  the  control  of 
infinite  wisdom  and  power,  and  doubtless  ever 
will  be,  working  towards  a  wondrous  consumma- 
tion of  amazing  glory  and  love,  in  which  redeemed 
men  and  a  celestial  earth,  rejuvenated  from  the 
old  one,  may  in  the  future  of  the  coming  centu- 
ries be  the  glorified  participants  and  the  blissful 
home. 

The  almost  universal,  and,  therefore,  we  may 
assume,  natural  and  intuitive  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence of  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
which  we  have  adopted  as  axioms  of  religious 
faith,  has  virtually  been  the  world's  faith  since 
the  beginning  of  time.  True,  the  people  of  most 
nations  have  also  believed  in  many  additional 
gods,  but  the  plural  deities  were  generally  sup- 
posed manifestations  or  incarnations  in  various 
forms  of  the  supreme  God  or  of  His  attributes. 
While  the  ignorant  masses  of  most  ancient  peoples 
undoubtedly  believed  in  and  worshiped  those 
plural  gods  or  manifestations  of  the  supreme 
Deity,  yet  we  know  from  the  records  of  history 
that  the  wise  and  learned  in  all  nations,  even  some 
such  in  grossly  barbarous   ones,    believed   in   a 


General  Review  of  Religions         7 

supreme,  omnipotent  God  who  was  the  creator 
of  all  things  and  the  ruler  of  all  inferior  deities, 
and  that  they  worshiped  the  inferior  divinities 
—  if  at  all  —  in  a  merely  perfunctory  way. 
Perhaps  in  benighted  Africa,  Australia,  and  some 
islands  of  the  oceans,  the  aborigines  were  all  so 
obtuse,  ignorant,  and  degraded  that  none  could 
grasp  the  conception  of  the  existence  of  one 
supreme,  overruling  power.  But  those  aborigines 
were  so  bestial  and  imbecile  as  to  be  hardly  human, 
and  hence  could  not  comprehend  objects  of  wor- 
ship above  their  miserable  fetiches.  But  to  the 
glory  of  the  Aryan  race,  especially,  it  must  be 
said  that  the  greatest  of  the  wise  and  learned, 
in  all  its  nations,  always  believed  in  and  revered 
one  supreme  Creator,  though  perhaps  ostensibly 
participating  in  the  mummeries  of  idolatries. 
Even  the  aboriginal  inhabitants  of  North  and 
South  America  believed  in  the  existence  of  one 
"Great  Spirit,"  although  some  of  them,  as,  for 
example,  the  people  of  Mexico,  Central  America, 
and  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Peru,  were  nominally 
idol  worshipers.  Hence  we  assert  from  the 
teachings  of  history  that  the  belief  in  one  supreme 
being  has  ever  been  the  normal  religion  of  the 
human  race,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  in 
ancient  times  the  uneducated  masses  of  most 
nations  deified  also  the  sim,  moon,  and  stars  and 
the  elements  and  forces  of  nature.  These,  as 
already   said,    were   usually    worshiped   only   as 


8  Evolution  of  Religions 

incarnations  or  manifestations  of  the  supreme 
Deity  in  various  forms,  and  not  as  in  themselves 
possessing  divine  power  independently. 

We  cannot  believe  that  the  great  philosophers 
of  ancient  times,  such  as  Herodotus,  Xenophon, 
Manetho,  Berosus,  Demosthenes,  Socrates,  Aris- 
totle, Plato,  Cicero,  Julius  Caesar,  Seneca,  Virgil, 
Pliny,  Antonius  Pius,  and  thousands  of  other 
eminent  historic  persons,  worshiped  statues  of 
silver,  brass,  or  marble,  as  of  themselves,  gods 
and  goddesses.  Such  belief  shows  ignorance  of 
ancient  history  and  literature.  We  know,  on  the 
contrary,  from  writings  of  those  great  men  which 
still  remain,  that  they  and  their  intimate  asso- 
ciates did  not  actually  worship  such  images,  but 
at  most  only  reverenced  the  deities  represented 
by  them.  And  many  ancient  peoples,  such  as 
the  vast  following  of  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster, 
Buddha,  and  Confucius,  did  not  worship  any 
idols,  nor  did  the  Israelites,  excepting  only  during 
periods  of  their  apostasy  from  the  Mosaic  Torah 
and  the  traditions  of  their  fathers. 

Religion  is  an  innate  sense  of  the  human  soul 
and  is  coeval  with  man's  existence.  Man's 
knowledge  of  God  and  his  duty  to  Him  and  to 
his  fellow-men  is  derived  from  the  light  of  nature, 
from  science,  from  innate  consciousness  and 
from  such  revelations  of  the  Deity  as  may  have 
been  given  to  man  in  ages  past  by  mental  inspira- 
tions or  supernatural  phenomena.     The  methods 


General  Review  of  Religions         9 

of  such  revelations  (if  any  have  ever  been  made) 
are  known  to  God  alone,  and  we  can  only  judge  of 
the  facts  of  such  revelations  by  their  nature  and 
importance,  their  agreement  with  the  recognized 
attributes  of  God,  the  character  of  the  men  to 
whom  they  were  given,  and  the  circumstances, 
supernatural  or  otherwise,  attendant  upon  such 
alleged  commimications  from  God.  We  know 
there  have  been  many  such  purported  revelations 
which  were  spurious,  even  though  alleged  to  have 
been  substantiated  by  miracles,  and  hence  the 
miraculous  attestations  to  any  religions,  to  be 
worthy  of  belief,  must,  in  the  very  nature  of 
things,  have  authentication  much  greater  than 
would  be  required  to  substantiate  any  merely 
natural  occurrences  or  ordinary  historical  facts. 

The  founders,  or  rather  perhaps  their  early  fol- 
lowers, of  all  the  religions  which  have  ever  existed, 
excepting  the  Confucian  of  China,  claimed  that 
their  missions,  as  prophets  of  God,  were  attested 
by  miraculous  manifestations.  Now  of  many 
systems  of  religions  which  flourished  in  ancient 
times  and  have  passed  away,  such  as  the  mythol- 
ogies of  Egypt,  Assyria,  Greece,  Rome,  and 
Scandinavia,  and  the  still  existing,  but  effete, 
Brahmanism  of  India,  we  do  not  propose  to 
more  than  make  mention.  They,  or  their  his- 
tories, are  not  within  the  scope  or  purpose  of  this 
work.  All  of  those  old  mythological  religions, 
excepting  Brahmanism,  which  yet  has  a  feeble 


lo  Evolution  of  Religions 

existence,  have  become  utterly  extinct,  and  only 
their  memories  and  traditions  of  wonderful  gods, 
and  many  of  their  miraculous  stories,  are  yet 
preserved  in  history.  They  were  simply  some  of 
the  creations  of  man's  craving  for  knowledge  of 
God  and  the  mysteries  of  the  future  life,  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  world,  and  have  been  submerged 
by  grander  systems  of  religion  and  brighter  light, 
or  swept  off  the  theater  of  time  in  the  cycles  of 
evolutionary  progress,  and  supplanted  by  the 
survival  of  the  best  and  fittest  faiths,  each  of 
which  will  in  turn  doubtless  disappear  and  be 
merged  in  the  one  ultimate  and  universal  religion, 
better  understood  as  the  years  roll  by,  and  always 
expanding  in  the  light  and  powers  of  the  divine 
Galilean  prophet,  the  central  being  of  the  world's 
history. 

Zoroaster,  or  Zarathustra,  of  Persia,  who  lived 
about  2000  or  2500  e.g.,  Moses  of  Egypt,  about 
1500  B.C.,  Confucius  of  China,  600  B.C.,  Buddha 
of  India,  500  B.C.,  Jesus  Christ,  4  b.c,  ;^;^  a.d.,  and 
Mohammed,  600  a.d.,  were  each  the  founders  of 
the  religions  which  bear  their  names,  and  which 
were  and  are  the  best  which  have  ever  existed, 
each  differing  in  many  respects,  but  all  monothe- 
isms, centering  in  one  and  the  same  God,  and  all 
substantially,  historically  true,  and  ethically  pure 
and  good.  They  each  exist  still  through  all 
the  mutations  of  time  and  empires,  as  great 
religious  systems  and  mighty  moral  forces.     The 


General  Review  of  Religions        n 

other  religions  of  the  past,  in  addition  to  those 
above  named,  had  also  many  things  in  their 
precepts  that  were  good,  but  so  much  in  their 
worships  was  evil,  barbarous,  and  frivolous,  that 
they  merit  no  commendations.  Probably  they 
answered  some  good  purposes  in  God's  great 
economy.  But  the  six  great  systems  of  religion, 
above  named,  and  which  are  as  well  of  the  present 
as  of  the  past,  all  taught  great  truths  of  God  and 
His  attributes.  The  ethics  inculcated  in  each 
are  mainly  good  and  true.  They  are  each  great 
factors  in  the  world's  life  and  development  now, 
as  in  the  past.  Their  histories  compose  much  of 
ancient  and  modem  history.  We  believe  their 
respective  founders  were  divinely  sent  to  teach 
and  guide  the  people  in  their  day  and  generation, 
and  while  some  of  them  had  higher  measures  of 
inspiration,  intellectual  gifts,  and  moral  virtues 
above  others,  Jesus  Christ  preeminently  so,  yet 
history  and  their  work  show  that  all  of  them  were 
great  and  good  men,  and  in  their  times,  and  the 
conditions  surrounding  and  creating  them,  they 
were  benefactors  of  the  race.  Zoroaster,  who  was 
probably  contemporary  with  Abraham  the 
"Father  of  the  Faithful,"  and  consequently  of 
the  mysterious  Melchizedek,  "Priest  of  the  Most 
High  and  King  of  Salem  *"  was  the  first  prophet 
of  God  of  whom  we   know  anything,  and   the 

*  Genesis  xvi,  i8;  Hebrews  vii,  1-3. 


12  Evolution  of  Religions 

religion  which  he  founded  and  which  still  exists, 
mainly  in  India,  is  the  oldest  of  the  world's 
present  faiths.  It  is  now  generally  known  as  the 
Parsee  or  Gueber  religion.  In  the  simplicity, 
purity,  and  grandeur  of  his  teachings,  Zoroaster 
is  superior  to  Moses,  and  second  only  to  Jesus 
Christ.  There  were  in  his  system  of  worship  no 
barbaric  sacrifices,  as  fancied  atonements  for 
sins,  but  he  required  adoration  of  one  God  only, 
and  taught  immortality,  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  and  a  future  life  of  rewards  and  punish- 
ments. 

Following  Zoroaster,  after  a  lapse  of  five  or  six 
hundred  years,  came  Moses,  also  a  monotheist, 
but  his  religion  was  silent,  so  far  as  the  books  of 
the  Pentateuch  teach,  as  to  immortality  and  the 
future  of  man.  Some  nine  hundred  years  after 
Moses,  the  advent  of  Confucius  and  Buddha 
occurred.  They  lived  nearly  at  the  same  time, 
were  both  monotheists,  and  teachers  of  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  though  Confucius'  lessons 
were  mainly  precepts  for  the  present  life.  After 
an  interval  of  six  hundred  years  came  the  Great 
Founder  of  Christianity.  Lastly,  after  an  inter- 
val of  nearly  six  hundred  years  more,  came  the 
Arabian  prophet  Mohammed,  whose  religion  was 
an  amalgam  of  Zoroastrianism,  Judaism,  and 
Christianity,  intermingled  with  the  weird  supersti- 
tions of  the  deserts  of  his  native  land,  and  whose 
heaven,  for  believers,   was  largely  a  voluptuous 


General  Review  of  Religions        13 

paradise.  The  basis  of  all  these  religions  is 
belief  in  only  one  supreme  being,  excepting  that 
Zoroaster,  or,  if  not  Zoroaster  himself,  his  priestly 
successors,  incorporated  into  his  religion  an  evil 
deity,  whom  they  entitled  Ahriman,  Angro 
Mainyus,  or  Satan,  and  who  was,  at  least  in  this 
world  if  not  throughout  the  universe,  in  their 
system,  endowed  with  nearly  equal  powers  to 
Ahura  Mazda,  or  Ormuzd,  the  supremely  good 
deity. 

As  the  subject  of  this  volume  is,  as  outlined  in 
the  commencement,  to  be  mainly  a  consideration 
of  prominent  doctrines  and  theories  taught,  or 
supposed  by  many  to  be  taught,  in  the  Hebrew 
and  Christian  Scriptures,  we  do  not  propose  to  go 
into  any  lengthy  commentary  or  discussion  of 
those  scriptures  generally,  or  of  the  history  or 
tenets  of  those  other  contemporaneous  Bibles  and 
religions  of  the  world,  further  than  a  general 
comparison  of  the  merits  of  the  respective  systems 
and  of  their  relative  claims  to  inspiration.  So 
far  as  they  teach  the  truth  of  Deity,  and  their 
moral  codes  are  in  accord  with  a  pure  standard  of 
ethics  and  of  each  other,  they  have  the  same 
claims  to  be  considered  inspired.  Whatsoever, 
if  anything,  in  each  of  those  sacred  books  is  not 
in  harmony  with  said  standard,  nor  with  God's 
attributes,  did  not  come  from  God,  but  is  human 
and,  therefore,  imperfect.  The  inspired  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Apostles  are  the 


14  Evolution  of  Religions 

grandest  and  best  of  all  religions.  The  ethics 
of  Zoroaster,  Buddha,  and  Confucius  are  very- 
similar  to  those  of  Moses  and  the  prophets.  There 
are  some  things  to  criticise  in  all  sacred  books, 
even  in  our  own,  and  probably  some  changes 
have  been  made  in  the  original  texts  of  all,  in 
translations  and  copyings.  Our  criticisms  will 
be  confined  mainly  to  our  Scriptures. 

In  our  theory  of  evolution  and  the  ultimate 
survival  of  the  fittest  and  best,  those  other 
religions,  we  believe,  will  all  pass  away,  and  all 
that  in  them  is  good  and  indestructible  will  be 
merged  in  the  broader,  more  liberal,  and  ever- 
lasting faith  of  Christianity,  as  it  will  be  in  time, 
when  expounded  and  taught  as  Jesus  taught  it, 
and  when  the  superstitions  and  interpolations 
which  crept  into  the  gospels  during  the  centuries 
of  ignorance  and  semi-pagan  darkness,  which 
succeeded  the  death  of  the  Apostles,  will  be 
revealed  merely  as  the  parasitic  growth  of  those 
credulous  and  bigoted  ages,  and  from  which  the 
apostolic  epistles  even  suffered.  But  during  all 
the  centuries  of  ignorance,  fanaticism,  and  bigotry, 
which  culminated  in  the  Dark  Ages,  the  golden 
truth,  though  much  obscured  and  perverted  at 
times,  was  preserved,  and,  we  believe,  the  illumi- 
nation of  religious  life  and  light  during  the  coming 
century  will  be  very  great.  Many  changes  in 
the  Bible  text  were  made  in  the  late  revised 
version.     Other  revisions  will  doubtless  be  made 


General  Review  of  Religions        15 

hereafter  as  greater  light  is  thrown  upon  its 
history,  not,  perhaps,  ehminating  much  from  it, 
but  in  changing  the  text  and  relegating  some  of 
the  books  of  the  present  canon,  such  as  Ecclesi- 
astes,  Solomon's  Love  Song,  Esther,  Job,  Jonah, 
Daniel,  and  Revelations  of  the  Apocalypse,  to 
the  present  Apocryphal  collection,  and  in  noting 
as  popular  myths  and  legends,  or  poetic  extrava- 
gances in  statements  of  natural  occurrences, 
many  of  the  miraculous  stories  in  the  Scriptures. 


CHAPTER  II 

COMPARISONS    OF    RELIGIONS 

OF  the  existing  systems  of  religions  the  followers 
of  Buddha,  the  prophet  of  India,  are  said  to 
be  most  numerous,  comprising  nearly  one-third 
of  the  human  race.  Eastern  and  Southern  Asia 
is  the  home  of  this  religion.  Christianity  in  its 
various  divisions,  as  Roman  Catholic,  Greek,  and 
Protestant  churches,  has  the  next  greatest  number 
of  adherents.  Confucianism  and  Mohammed- 
anism each  have  about  equal  numbers.  Judaism 
has  a  few  million  followers;  Zoroastrianism  a 
million  or  more,  and  Mormonism  a  million.  Of 
these  "religions,  the  Hebrew,  Christian,  Moham- 
medan, and  Mormon  are  cognate  or  related,because 
of  having  not  only  many  similar  points  of  belief, 
but  because  all  are  more  or  less  founded  upon 
and  derived  from  the  Mosaic  system.  Each  of 
the  existing  religions  had  its  own  founder.  But 
of  all  the  other  ancient  systems  of  religion,  now 
all  extinct,  excepting  Brahmanism  of  Southern 
Hindustan,  history  gives  us  no  information  of  any 
special  promulgators.  Probably  there  were  none, 
and  those  old  systems  of  worship,  all  polytheistic, 
were  the  growths  of  time  and  national  environ- 

16 


Comparisons  of  Religions  17 

ments  and  conditions,  the  evolutions  of  many 
religious  ideas,  fantasies,  and  superstitions. 
According,  merely,  to  the  popular  limited 
knowledge  and  capacities  of  the  people  and 
priestly  classes,  their  conceptions  of  the  gods  and 
demons  they  worshiped  and  feared  were  formed. 
And  these  ancient  religions  were  all  based  upon 
fear,  and  not,  as  Christianity,  on  love.  Even  the 
Mosaic,  Zoroastrian,  Buddhist,  and  Mohammedan 
systems  appealed  largely  to  the  fears  of  believers. 
The  gods  and  goddesses  of  those  ancient,  now 
extinct  religions,  were  mainly,  as  we  know  from 
history  and  classical  literature,  gross,  sensual, 
subject  to  human  passions,  and  not  greatly 
elevated  in  morals  and  intelligence  above  their 
worshipers.  Some  were  conceived  of  as  about 
humanly  wise  and  good;  some  were  guilty  of 
atrocious  crimes ;  and  all  possessed  powers,  accord- 
ing to  the  ideas  of  their  ignorant  worshipers, 
varying  from  merely  superhuman  to  a  limited, 
not  absolute  omnipotence.  They  were  not  worthy 
of  the  highest  love  and  reverence  of  their  wor- 
shipers. A  mysterious  destiny  or  fate  controlled 
all.  Some  were  more  or  less  imder  earthly  in- 
fluences and  limitations.  There  appeared  also, 
in  all  those  old  mythologies,  a  class  of  lesser  and 
inferior  divinities,  men  and  women,  who  had 
been  greatly  distinguished  in  their  lifetimes  as 
founders  of  empires,  as  great  warriors,  sculptors, 
poets,  and  painters,  great  patrons  of  education, 


i8  Evolution  of  Religions 

agriculture,  and  commerce,  who  were  translated 
from  life  to  the  realms  of  the  higher  deities,  or 
were  deified  after  death. 

Other  religions,  as  the  Hebrew  and  the  Buddh- 
ist, had  their  mythical  counter  parts  in  the  trans- 
lation from  earth  to  heaven  of  great  prophets, 
like  Enoch  and  Elijah,  of  the  Bible.  The  higher 
or  lower  conceptions  of  the  gods,  demons,  and 
other  supernatural  beings  of  the  various  ages  and 
countries,  and  the  evolutions  of  religious  senti- 
ment and  worship,  indicated  the  moral  and 
intellectual  status  of  the  peoples,  and  their  culture 
and  conditions  of  society  accorded  with  those 
ideals.  Qualities  of  good  and  evil  were  apparent 
in  all  human  beings,  and  instead  of  apprehending 
that  such  opposite  qualities  and  corresponding 
conduct  resulted  from  the  proper  or  improper  use 
of  the  faculties  and  desires,  mental,  moral,  and 
physical,  with  which  men  and  women  were 
endowed  naturally,  as  evil  was  universally  preva- 
lent, it  was  taught  in  nearly  all  religions,  as  their 
basic  principle,  that  the  world  was  under  the 
control  of  great  and  antagonistic  powers  of  evil 
as  well  as  good ;  the  evil  spirits  ever  actively  and 
powerfully  beguiling  men  into  sin  and  resulting 
misery,  ever  doing  more  active  and  efficient  work 
than  the  good  spirits  who  sought  to  influence  men 
and  women  to  be  good. 

In  most  ancient  religions,  it  was  assumed  that 
the  progenitors  of  the  human  family  were  originally 


Comparisons  of  Religions  19 

created  morally  perfect  and  sinless.  And  it  was 
deemed  necessary  to  account  for  a  beginning 
or  primary  origin  of  evil,  disease,  and  death, 
supematurally,  as  the  work  of  an  evil  spirit, 
instead  of  reasonably  assuming  the  liability  to 
err,  as  the  normal  condition  of  the  race ;  and  sin 
and  disease  to  occur  naturally  from  the  abuses 
and  excesses  of  passions  and  appetites,  in  them- 
selves and  their  proper  enjoyment  normally  good. 
In  accordance  with  such  beliefs  and,  possibly, 
largely  that  they  might  have  greater  spiritual 
influence  over  the  minds  of  men,  myths  were 
fashioned  by  ancient  prophets  and  priests,  such 
as  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  Serpent,  and  the  fall 
of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Book  o(  Genesis,  and 
similar  legends  in  the  religions  of  Egypt,  Persia, 
India,  and  other  nations  in  which  an  evil  deity 
was  represented  to  have  led  the  first  parents  of 
our  race  astray  into  disobedience  and  rebellion 
against  God,  and  as  a  consequence  of  so  doing, 
through  them,  brought  sin  and  misery  and, 
ultimately,  death  into  the  world.  As  sin  was 
hateful  to  God,  it  was  deemed  necessary  in  the 
early  religions  of  most  peoples  (not,  however,  in 
the  Zoroastrian,  Buddhist,  Confucian,  or  Moham- 
medan faiths,  which  ignored  such  an  idea)  to 
frame  a  system  of  sacrificial  atonement  for  sin, 
which  atonement  was  outside  of,  external  to,  and 
disconnected,  except  figuratively,  from  the  repent- 
ance, reparation,  and  moral  responsibility  of  the 


20  Evolution  of  Religions 

sinner  himself.  This  atonement  was  supposed 
to  be  made  by  the  sacrifice  of  animals,  and  some- 
times of  human  beings,  other  than  the  sinner 
himself,  offered  to  deity;  as  well  as  by  various 
other  offerings,  which  sacrifices  and  offerings  were 
believed  in  some  way,  never  clearly  explained 
by  priestcraft,  to  be  highly  agreeable  and  pro- 
pitiatory to  the  heavenly  powers,  and  that  through 
such  offering  and  propitiation  sins  would  be 
pardoned. 

In  all  religions  a  priesthood  was  established 
and  set  apart  to  conduct  and  regulate  worship 
and  instruct  the  people  in  its  mysteries.  The 
priestly  orders  were  supposed  to  be  of  superior 
sanctity,  were  of  the  learned  class,  and  anciently 
the  only  learning  of  a  country  was  in  them,  and 
much  of  it  was  kept,  as  secret  mysteries,  from  the 
laity.  The  priests  claimed  to  be  ministers  of 
the  gods  ordained  by  them  to  expound  and 
proclaim  their  will,  assuming  usually  to  authenti- 
cate their  sacred  missions  by  supernatural  powers, 
and  authorized  to  inflict  condign  punishment 
upon  disbelievers. 

Of  all  the  ancient  religions,  those  of  Zoroaster, 
Moses,  Confucius,  Buddha,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Mohammed,  are,  as  already  said,  the  only  ones 
which  survive  the  wonderful  evolutions  and  stem 
scrutinies  of  time.  Brahmanism  need  not  be 
taken  into  consideration.  It  is  crumbling  into 
ruins.     Its  days  as  a  factor  in  the  world's  progress 


Comparisons  of  Religions  21 

are  numbered.  Mormonism  is  but  a  modem 
parasitic  outgrowth  of  polygamic  Judaism  and 
orthodox  Christianity.  The  books  of  its  Bible, 
crude,  dull,  fictious,  all  are  in  conception,  style, 
and  tenets  but  weak  imitations  of  scriptural 
history  and  ethics.  Much  of  good  is  in  it,  in  its 
way,  —  all  religions  have  many  good  teachings 
and  morals,  —  but  it  is  merely  a  clumsy  religious 
romance  without  beauty  and  without  one  particle 
of  historic  truth.  While  it  has  a  million  or  more 
of  votaries,  it  can  never  become  a  great  religion. 
The  day  for  the  wide  prevalence  of  such  delusions 
has  gone  by.  Knowing  its  utter  negation  of 
any  evidence  upon  which  to  build  up  such  a 
structure  of  faith,  Mormonism  requires,  and, 
amazing  as  it  is,  has  found  incredible  super- 
stition, enthusiasm,  and  belief  in  the  supernatural 
and  credulity  to  propagate  it.  Its  history  illus- 
trates the  truth  that  in  some,  nay,  very  many 
human  beings,  even  in  the  educated  and  intelli- 
gent, their  religious  beliefs  or  infatuations  may 
imder  certain  circumstances  eclipse  the  wildest 
vagaries  of  the  imagination. 

The  foimders  of  the  great  existing  religions 
of  the  world  were  doubtless  each  ordained  and 
qualified  by  Providence  for  their  respective 
missions,  greatly  differing  certainly  in  the  measiire 
of  light  and  inspiration,  but  substantially  agreeing 
in  their  delineations  of  the  attributes  of  deity 
and  in  the  moral  precepts  they  taught.     Their 


22  Evolution  of  Religions 

systems  of  faith  and  teachings  were  all  so  infinitely 
superior,  notwithstanding  many  differences 
among  them  and  naturally  some  defects,  to  all 
the  old  mythological  and  idolatrous  religions, 
that  these  facts  constitute  the  best  evidence  that 
the  teachers  of  each  were  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree  inspired  and  ordained  for  their  missions 
as  co-laborers  in  God's  training  and  education  of 
the  race.  However,  to  Jesus  Christ  attaches 
unapproachable  superiority.  He  was  justly 
called  the  "Son  of  God."  He  was  the  peerless 
teacher  of  the  truth.  Next  after  Him  in  order 
of  superiority,  though  not  in  time,  for  he  was 
long  before  the  Savior's  time,  is  Zoroaster,  the 
great  Persian  prophet ;  next  Moses,  the  Egyptian 
Hebrew;  then  in  order,  Buddha,  Confucius,  and 
lastly  Mohammed.  Each  should  be  judged  as  to 
comparative  greatness  by  his  opportunities,  work, 
and  character,  by  his  influence  in  the  world's 
history  and  progress,  and  not  merely  by  the 
number  of  his  followers,  now,  after  the  changes 
and  evolutions  of  so  many  centuries.  The  reli- 
gions of  Zoroaster,  Buddha,  and  Confucius  are 
each  sui  generis,  and  grew  up  independently  of 
each  other ;  but  the  Hebrew  Bible  is  the  fountain- 
head  of  Judaism,  Christianity,  Mohammedanism, 
and  Mormonism.  Doubtless  the  sublime  faith  of 
Abraham,  who  was  a  native  of  Chaldea,  which 
bordered  on  Persia,  and  certainly  a  contemporary 
of  Zoroaster,  was  acquired  from  the  latter's  teach- 


Comparisons  of  Religions  23 

ing,  because  it  was  very  similar,  especially  as  to 
the  great  doctrine  of  the  unity  of  God  and  His 
infinite  power  and  presence.  Zoroaster's  is  cer- 
tainly the  oldest  surviving  religion  of  the  world. 
And  his  faith,  though  by  that  time  much 
corrupted,  learned  from  the  Persian  priests  and 
Babylonian  Magi,  by  the  exiles  of  Judah  and 
Benjamin,  during  their  long  residence  in  these 
countries,  was  undoubtedly  incorporated  largely 
into  the  post -exilian  Jewish  religion ;  especially 
the  belief  in  Satan,  in  a  resurrection  of  the  dead, 
immortality,  and  a  future  life  of  rewards  and 
punishments  —  tenets  which  Moses  and  the 
prophets  had  not  previously  known  or  taught,  as 
can  easily  be  verified  by  searching  the  Scriptures.* 
Very  clearly,  then,  post-exilic  assimilation  of 
the  teachings  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  with  the 
doctrines  of  Zoroastrianism  was  the  religion  in 
which  Christ  was  trained  while  a  youth.  He 
certainly  had  not  all  his  life  up  to  the  age  of 
thirty  years,  w^hen  his  ministry  commenced 
actively,  been  working  at  the  carpenter's  bench 
with  his  father,  Joseph,  without  becoming  ac- 
quainted thoroughly  with  Hebrew  literature,  and 
through  the  sects  of  the  Nazarenes,  the  Pharisees, 
and  the  ascetic  Essenes,  most  probably  with  the 
doctrines  of  the  Persian  Zend  x\ vesta.  The 
gospel  teachings  clearly  show  that  He  had,  and 

1  See  "  Zoroaster  and  the  Bible  "  by  Rev.  I.  H.  Mills  in  the 
Nineteenth  Century  Magazine  of  1894. 


24  Evolution  of  Religions 

that  He  was  as  familiar  with  the  Zoroastrian 
tenets  of  resurrection,  immortality,  and  the 
existence  of  Satan,  as  with  the  Mosaic  Torah  and 
the  prophets,  which  had  only  to  do  with  earth 
and  time.  There  was  a  lapse  of  eighteen  years 
from  the  occasion  when  Jesus  sat  with  the  priests 
and  rabbins  of  the  Jews  in  the  Temple,  asking 
and  answering  their  profound  questions  of  laws 
and  religion  at  twelve  years  of  age,  until  He 
began  His  public  ministry  at  the  age  of  thirty, 
during  which  time  nothing  is  known  of  Him 
excepting  His  interview  with  John  and  His  baptism 
by  him  in  the  Jordan.  The  story  of  the  temp- 
tation, subsequently,  is  evidently  mythical.  Dur- 
ing all  this  interval  of  time,  at  least  after  He 
attained  manhood,  Jesus  may  have  traveled  into 
surrounding  countries  and  learned  something  of 
the  religions  of  Zoroaster  and  Buddha.  Oriental 
traditions  say  that  He  wandered  into  Egypt, 
Persia,  and  India  during  those  silent  years,  and 
studied  the  religions  of  those  countries.  His 
was  not  a  nature  to  be  idle.  Certainly,  whether 
at  home  or  away  during  those  years.  He  was 
seeking  knowledge  and  equipping  himself  for  His 
life's  mission.  His  great  store  of  religious  truths, 
chastQ  and  elegant  language,  splendid  oratory, 
and  wonderful  insight  into  human  nature,  justify 
us  in  believing  that  He  had  seen  much  of  the  world, 
had  traveled  in  other  countries  than  Palestine,  and 
was  familiar  with  their  religions.     Thus  He  had 


Comparisons  of  Religions  25 

become  splendidly  equipped  for  His  great  minis- 
try, and  for  laying  the  foundations  of  a  religion 
which,  like  the  stone  seen  by  the  prophet  Daniel, 
cut  out  of  the  mountains  without  hands,  was  to 
roll  on  over  all  the  earth,  and  in  the  centuries 
subdue  and  supersede  all  other  faiths.  All  this 
work  was  not  done  by  Jesus,  as  popularly  sup- 
posed, in  three  years,  for  according  to  the  com- 
mon chronology  He  was  baptized  when  thirty 
years  of  age,  26  a.d.,  and  was  crucified  in  ^;^  a.d., 
or  when  about  thirty-seven  years  of  age,  so  His 
public  ministry  extended  over  seven  years. 

Those  six  great  prophets  of  Asia,  Zoroaster, 
Moses,  Confucius,  Buddha,  Jesus  Christ,  and 
Mohammed,  were  the  only  really  great  religious 
teachers  of  the  world,  as  original  promulgators 
of  faiths.  All  doubtless  in  their  several  theaters 
of  action,  were  inspired  by  Deity  to  teach  their 
fellow-men  higher  and  purer  truths  than  were 
generally  known  and  prevalent  in  the  countries 
and  days  in  which  they  lived  and  wrought.  They 
taught  not  for  their  own  times  alone,  but  for  all 
subsequent  ages,  for  much  of  their  teachings,  the 
grand  creed  of  Zoroaster,  the  Decalogue  of  Moses, 
the  lessons  of  charity  and  brotherhood  of  Buddha, 
the  charming  social  culture  and  filial  piety  of 
Confucius,  and  the  incomparable  parables  and 
sermons  of  Jesus  Christ,  scintillating  with  love 
and  light,  these  and  many  more  of  their  great 
lessons   will   survive   for  all    time   and  lead   all 


26  Evolution  of  Religions 

human  progress.  All  of  those  prophets  taught  of 
and  worshiped  one  and  the  same  God,  a  fact 
which  most  Christians  seem  to  forget.  Their 
ethical  teachings  are  nearly  the  same,  their  great 
tenets  are  much  the  same  (of  course  differing  in 
non-essentials  and  ritual) ,  and  if  Christian  ortho- 
doxy be  true,  in  the  nature  of  deity,  but  only 
differing  with  orthodoxy.  Jesus  Christ  wrote  not 
a  line  of  His  teachings  to  leave  with  His  followers, 
nor  do  we  know  certainly  that  Zoroaster  and 
Buddha  left  any  writings.  Traditionally,  some 
fragments  of  beautiful  poems  are  ascribed  to 
Zoroaster.  Confucius  and  Mohammed  wrote,  or 
dictated  to  be  written,  their  own  Bibles,  the 
Analects  and  the  Koran.  Moses  is  commonly 
supposed  to  have  written  the  Pentateuch.  He 
may  have  written  the  groundwork  of  the  five 
books  from  compilations  of  older  writings  and 
traditions,  but  we  know  that  they  were  revised 
and  many  additions  and  changes  made  in  them 
by  the  post-exilian  Jewish  prophet,  Ezra.  In 
fact,  Ezra  was  doubtless  the  redactor  and  com- 
piler of  all  the  Old  Testament  books,  existing  in 
his  time,  into  their  present  forms.  The  sameness 
of  style  and  phraseology  indicate  a  compilation 
of  all  .the  books  at  one  time  and  by  the  same 
person,  and  the  evidences  of  compilations  from 
various  documents  are  unquestionable.  The  best 
Bible  scholars  admit  it.  The  Talmud  says  all 
the  books  of  the  Old  Testament  previously  exist- 


Comparisons  of  Religions  27 

ing  were  lost  or  destroyed  at  the  destruction 
of  Jerusalem  by  the  Chaldeans,  and  were  repro- 
duced by  Ezra  through  divine  inspiration. 
Changes  and  perversions  have  been  made  in 
time  in  most  ancient  religious  writings.  Oriental 
scholars  say  the  modem  Zend  Avesta  does  not 
teach  correctly  in  all  things  the  ancient  faith  of 
Zoroaster,  for  though  believing  in  Angro  Mainyus, 
the  evil  on,  He  did  not  teach  of  him  as  a  dual 
deity,  but  that  he  was  an  inferior  and  subject 
being  to  the  good  God.  The  belief  in  Satan  as  a 
dual  deity  probably  crept  into  Zoroaster's  religion 
in  after-times,  when  it  became  amalgamated  and 
corrupted  with  the  Magiism  of  Media  and  Babylon. 
And  to  the  glory  of  that  most  ancient,  and 
probably  primeval  faith,  it  must  be  said  that 
there  were  no  absurd  and  debasing  sacrifices 
whatever,  for  atonement,  in  its  rites,  of  sins  or 
for  other  purposes.^  But  it  may  be  said,  Why 
should  certain  men  in  different  regions  of  the 
world  be  inspired  and  commissioned  to  teach 
different  systems  of  religion?  Why  should  not 
one  man  be  commissioned  to  teach  the  same 
faith  for  all?  Whatever  the  reasons,  in  the  first 
place,  that  has  not  been  done.  Moses'  system 
was  in  many  respects  a  very  different  religion 
from    Jesus    Christ's.     Many    prophets    besides 

•  Rawlinson's  "Ancient  Religions,"  pp.  64,  65.  "Zo- 
roaster and  the  Bible"  in  the  Nineteenth  Century  Magazine, 
July,  1894. 


28  Evolution  of  Religions 

Moses  assisted  in  evolving  the  Hebrew  economy. 
The  Apostles  of  the  Savior,  notably  Paul, 
materially  contributed  to  the  development  of 
His  religion.  One  teacher  for  all  nations  in  the 
past  has  not  been  God's  way.  In  the  second 
place,  had  no  mission,  excepting  to  Moses  and 
Jesus  Christ,  been  given  to  the  other  great  teachers 
mentioned,  the  world  in  all  probability,  outside 
of  the  narrow  boundaries  of  Palestine  in  which 
alone  the  Mosaic  religion  shed  its  light  for  cen- 
turies, and  outside  of  the  comparatively  limited 
areas  of  Christian  civilization  for  other  long 
centuries,  would  have  all  else  remained  in  the 
darkness,  sensualism,  and  degradation  of  the 
ancient  mythological  idolatrous  religions  which 
once  existed,  almost  up  to  the  present  time.  The 
grand  theism  and  splendid  ethics  of  the  other 
three  great  rehgions  of  Asia,  in  Persia,  India, 
China,  and  Japan,  would  have  been  unknown 
and  their  elevating  influences  unfelt,  as  they 
otherwise  were,  through  the  long  centuries  of 
their  sway. 

Zoroastrianism,  we  have  reason  to  believe, 
supplanted  mythology  and  idolatry  in  Central 
Asia,  Confucianism  the  same  in  China.  Buddh- 
ism, in  India,  engaged  in  bitter  contest  with 
idolatrous  Brahmanism,  and  though  it  never  fully 
succeeded  in  supplanting  it,  yet  it  caused  a 
wonderful  reformation  in  the  lives  and  customs 
of  many  millions  of  people,  and  has  for  centuries 


Comparisons  of  Religions  29 

been  the  religion  of  nearly  one-third  of  the  human 
race.  Must  it  not  have  been  sent  and  blessed  of 
God?  And  when  Mohammed  proclaimed  the 
Koran  to  Arabia,  the  then  mongrel  Christianity  of 
that  country  and  of  Egypt  and  the  regions  in 
Northern  Africa  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean, 
had  become  so  corrupted  and  intermixed  with 
heathen  rites  as  to  be  fast  relapsing  into  idolatry, 
which  Mohammedanism  utterly  stamped  out 
and  set  up  the  standard  of  the  only  one  God. 
Christianity  had  made  little  progress  in  the  Old 
World  since  the  Roman  Empire  embraced  it  as 
the  state  religion,  and  with  the  exception  of  the 
countries  of  the  New  World,  colonized  from 
Europe,  until  really  the  beginning  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  had  made  small  advance  for 
fifteen  hundred  years.  So  that  in  the  providence 
of  God,  those  other  ancient  religions,  when  they 
came  among  men,  were  absolutely  necessary  for 
the  welfare  of  the  world.  All  but  Mohammed- 
anism, long  antedated  Christianity. 

Very  little  progress  in  the  means  of  communi- 
cation among  men  by  travel  and  commerce  had 
been  made  for  many  centuries  until  the  advent  of 
steam  and  electricity.  Since  then,  and  mainly 
during  the  past  one  himdred  years,  more  has  been 
done  to  spread  Christianity  over  the  world  and 
for  the  general  education  of  the  people,  than 
during  the  nearly  seventeen  centuries  previous, 
since  the  days  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His  Apostles. 


30  Evolution  of  Religions 

Hence,  we  repeat  that  in  the  providence  of  God 
and  in  the  wonderful  evolutions  of  His  moral 
government,  the  religions  of  Zoroaster,  Confucius, 
Buddha,  and  Mohammed  were  apparently  great 
essential  factors  in  the  progress,  the  conservatism, 
and  intellectual  and  moral  development  of  the 
human  race.  They  grew  up  where  Christianity 
and  Judaism,  excepting  in  the  case  of  Moham- 
medanism, were  imknown.  They  filled  voids  of 
darkness  and  the  degradations  of  utterly  false 
religions  which  would  otherwise  have  existed, 
where  they  supplanted  them,  so  far  as  we  can 
see,  up  to  within  half  a  century  past.  So  these 
religions  have  really  immensely  blessed  the 
countries  in  which  they  were  dominant  for  thou- 
sands of  years.  Hence,  in  view  of  these  facts,  why 
should  Christians  denoimce  those  other  great 
religions  as  false  systems,  each  claiming  inspira- 
tion from  God  to  their  founders,  and  each  pro- 
claiming the  same  grand  fimdamental  religious 
truths  ?  Hardly  one  in  a  thousand  of  Christians 
even  at  this  day  knows  anything  about  them 
Until  recent  years  they  filled  no  place  which 
Christianity  would  have  occupied,  and  without 
their  various  sacred  books  teaching  of  one  God 
only,  and  pure  morals,  the  peopb  of  all  those 
coimtries  who  worshiped  under  those  religious 
would  otherwise,  literally,  in  the  language  of  the 
old  prophet  of  Israel,  "have  sat  in  darkness  and 
the  shadow  of  death,"  in  utter  mental  and  moral 


Comparisons  of  Religions  31 

darkness.  Yes,  we  believe  their  founders  were 
sent  of  God  and  gave  to  their  followers  the  best 
religions  suited  to  their  capacities  and  the  times. 
And  though  not  gifted  with  the  power  and  inspi- 
ration of  Jesus,  the  Son  of  God,  they  were,  we 
verily  beheve,  co-laborers  in  the  moral  vineyard 
of  earth,  each  teaching  of  the  one  God  and  pure 
morals,  inspired  in  so  far  as  they  revealed  God's 
will,  but  in  their  miracles,  histories,  forms  of 
worship  and  civil  laws,  they  were  only  human 
and  wrote  as  men. 

There  are  errors  in  all  those  sacred  books,  and 
some  things  perhaps  that  were  best  not  in  them, 
many  things  in  some  of  them,  men  wrote,  men 
compiled,  and  men  translated  them  into  other 
languages  than  the  originals  —  erring,  fallible  men. 
It  is  not  believed  at  this  day  by  the  best  scholars 
that  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch  as  it  is,  or  that 
Joshua  wrote  the  book  which  goes  by  his  name, 
or  that  the  historical  and  most  other  books  of 
the  Old  Testament  were  written  by  the  persons  to 
whom  their  authorships  have  usually  been  as- 
cribed. And  the  authorships  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  of  the  New  Testament  are,  for  the  most 
part,  uncertain.  Rev.  Charles  Briggs,  probably 
the  ablest  Bible  scholar  and  linguist  of  our  day, 
and  many  other  profound  biblical  teachers,  con- 
clusively prove  that  the  authorship  of  nearly  all 
the  books  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  of  several 
of  the  Gospels  and  some  of  the  Epistles  of  the 


32  Evolution  of  Religions 

New,  are   either    anonymous    or  pseudonymous, 
imknown  or  fictitious. ^     No  more  do  we  know  at 
this  day  who  were  the  authors  or  compilers  of 
the   Zend   Avesta,   the   Tri  Pitakas,   or   "Three 
Baskets"    of    the    Buddhists,    or   the    Brahman 
Vedas.     Much     of     these     ancient     Bibles     are 
resplendent  with  great  truths,  and  all,  excepting 
the  Vedas,  teach  only  of  the  One  Almighty  Being ; 
but,  nevertheless,  all  have  many  things  in  them 
that  are  of  the  "earth  earthy,"  even  if  much  in 
them  is  from  God.     So  that  truly,  as  we  believe 
and  as  we  expect  to  show  clearly  in  these  pages, 
even  of   our   Hebrew   and   Christian   Scriptures, 
only  their  revelations  of  God  and  of  His  laws  bear 
the  impress  of  inspiration.     While  we  shall  refer 
frequently  in  these  pages  to  the  sacred  books  of 
the  other  great  religions  of  the  world,  and  may 
discuss  and  compare  their  ethics  and  forms  of 
worship  with  the  Jewish  and  Christian  religions, 
the  questions  of  discussion  will  be  mainly  of  those 
latter  systems  as  composing  one  Bible  and  of  the 
great    doctrinal   tenets    supposed   to   be   taught 
therein,  as  hereinbefore  outlined.     We  may  say 
here,  that  though  based  upon  the  teachings  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets,  Jesus'  religion  was  not 
the  same  as  theirs.     The  Jews  were  mainly  hostile 
to  it  in  Christ's  time,  and  have  been  so  ever  since. 
Their  rabbinical  books,   the  Talmuds,   Mishnas, 

•  Note  B,  Appendix. 


Comparisons  of  Religions  33 

and  others,  bitterly  denoiince  it.  Many  of  the 
laws  and  institutions  of  the  Mosaic  economy, 
such  as  the  sacrificial  customs,  polygamy,  slavery, 
divorces  at  will  of  husbands,  etc.,  were  wrong 
and  barbarous.  We  cannot  believe  they  were 
ever  ordained  of  God,  although  so  declared  in  the 
Pentateuch,  because  they  were  institutions  con- 
trary to  His  attributes,  and  we  know  from  history 
and  experience,  contrary  to  human  welfare.* 
They  were  all  contrary  to  Jesus'  life  and  doctrines. 
He  specially  repudiated  polygamy  and  divorces, 
and  never  indorsed  those  other  institutions, 
never  observed  the  sacrificial  rites,  and  frequently 
denounced  the  Jewish  priesthood  of  the  Mosaic 
worship  in  the  most  bitter  terms. 

No  more  terrible  excoriation  of  the  ecclesi- 
astical hierarchy  of  any  rehgion  can  be  found 
than  in  Jesus'  denunciation  of  the  priests,  scribes, 
and  Pharisees  in  the  twenty-third  chapter  of  St. 
Matthew.  These  denunciations  are  the  more 
remarkable,  for  they  were  of  orthodox  believers 
in  the  Mosaic  economy;  but  of  the  atheistic  and 
heretical  Sadducees  he  had  Httle  to  say,  and  seldom 
censured  them.  His  portrayals  of  the  character 
of  His  Father,  God,  were  absolutely  antagonistic 
to  many  of  the  ascriptions  to  Jehovah,  of  hatred 
and  revenge,  found  in  the  Old  Testament.  Surely 
the  God  of  Israel,  of  whom  Moses  and  Joshua 

»  Briggs,  "Bible,  Church,  and  Reason."  Appendix,  p. 
259- 


34  Evolution  of  Religions 

taught  as  having  ordered  the  slaughter  of  all  the 
men,  ivomen,  and  children  of  the  Amalekites  and 
of  certain  of  the  cities  of  the  Canaanites,  without 
even  the  shadow  of  mercy,  was  not  the  God  whom 
Jesus  worshiped  as  His  "Father  in  Heaven." 
So  even  Jesus  did  not  recognize  the  teachings  and 
laws  of  the  Mosaic  religion  in  many  essentials 
as  His  own  belief,  but  on  the  contrary  taught 
otherwise. 

We  do  not  propose  writing  a  commentary  upon 
the  Bible  or  specially  upon  any  of  its  books,  but 
only  an  examination  of  the  most  salient  questions 
connected  with  it  and  outlined  in  the  beginning 
of  this  work.  In  reviewing  those  questions  and 
connected  therewith,  discussing  on  general  lines 
some  of  its  historical  narratives,  its  legends  and 
miracles,  its  ethical  code,  ceremonial  and  sacrifi- 
cial institutions,  and  the  Mosaic  polity  generally, 
we  believe  they  should  be  considered  in  the  light 
of  the  great  fundamental  truths,  assiimed  as 
axiomatics  in  the  outset  of  this  work  as  the 
imiversal  belief  of  all  intelligent  and  reasonable 
people  of  all  faiths  at  this  day.  That  the  one  and 
only  God,  omnipotent,  omniscient,  and  omni- 
present, whose  government  is  universal  and  whose 
laws  are  changeless,  is  the  creator  of  all  things 
and  father  of  all  rational  beings,  and  desires  the 
temporal  and  eternal  welfare  of  each  and  all 
His  children,  and  has  endowed  them  with  immor- 
tal spirit  life  that  they  may  fulfill  the  purposes 


Comparisons  of  Religions  35 

of  their  being,  is  also  universally  believed.  That 
such  are  His  purposes,  and  that  they  will  ulti- 
mately be  carried  out  and  accompHshed  in  har- 
mony with  His  universal  plans,  in  universal 
salvation,  all,  we  are  sorry  to  say,  do  not  also 
believe,  but  I  and  many  others  do  imques- 
tioningly  believe  and  trust.  And  further  believ- 
ing and  holding  that  enlightened  human  reason 
and  conscience  are  also  in  harmony  with  God's 
laws  in  reference  to  all  moral  obligations,  in  so 
far  as  they  are  revealed  in  nature  and  the  Bible, 
we  shall  also  assume  that  whatever  in  our  Bible 
or  in  the  sacred  books  of  any  other  religion  does 
not  square  with  such  standard  of  ethics  or  is 
repugnant  thereto,  clearly  and  unquestionably, 
even  to  the  reason  and  consciences  of  honest  and 
ordinarily  intelligent  persons  free  from  sectarian 
or  other  bias,  though  not  specialists  in  religious 
literature,  is  not  of  or  from  God,  nor  in  accordance 
with  His  will,  although  it  may  be  said  to  be  so  in 
any  books,  and  may  be  declared  by  the  writers  of 
such  books  to  have  been  enunciated  by  God.  In 
such  cases  we  believe,  if  there  are  any  such  incon- 
gruities in  the  Bible,  either  that  the  original  text 
has  been  changed  or  that  the  good  men  of  old 
who  wrote  or  compiled  the  various  books  thereof, 
sometimes  put  therein  matters  which  were  merely 
the  products  of  their  own  minds,  though  assumed 
by  them  to  have  come  from  God.  These  matters, 
in  our  belief,  were  sometimes  fictions  and  allego- 


36  Evolution  of  Religions 

ries,  usually  poetic,  and  framed  to  enforce  par- 
ticular precepts  and  theories  supposed  to  have 
been  inspired.  In  other  cases  we  believe  such 
matters  to  have  been  merely  legends,  which  were 
easily  accepted  for  truths,  in  ages  of  ignorance 
and  superstition,  even  by  comparatively  wise  and 
learned  men.  That  is,  broadly  and  clearly  to 
state  our  position  more  concisely :  No  matter  how 
venerable  with  antiquity,  no  matter  with  what 
historical  or  ecclesiastical  authority  championed  or 
enforced,  whatever  is  not  in  accordance  with  the 
holy  character  of  God  and  with  the  pure  ethics  and 
enlightened  reason  and  consciences  He  has  given 
us,  or  in  the  matter  of  historical  or  miraculous 
occurrences  whatever  has  not  reasonable  evidences 
of  authenticity,  we  shall  reject  and  discard  as  not 
inspired  or  not  literally  true,  or  at  least,  as  verdicts 
of  Scotch  juries  sometimes  say,  as  "not  proven." 
So  by  such  standards  of  conscience,  evidence,  and 
criticism,  we  propose  to  examine  and  judge  histori- 
cal statements,  miracles,  laws^  religious  rites,  sac- 
rificial institutions,  and  ordinances  of  the  Bible,  in 
so  far  as  we  consider  them,  and  also  creeds  of  faith 
supposed  to  be  deduced  therefrom,  especially 
those  taught  by  orthodox  Christian  denominations, 
only  asking  candid  hearing  and  honest,  dispas- 
sionate judgment  by  those  who  may  read  this 
book.  Its  general  purposes  have  been  already 
stated.  And  we  also  desire  thereby,  and  by  a 
general  review  of  the  Bible  and  special  considera- 


Comparisons  of  Religions  37 

tion  of  some  of  its  most  important  historical 
statements,  ordinances,  and  ethics,  that  we  may 
contribute  something  to  the  advancement  of  true 
religion,  as  we  believe  and  understand  it. 

Ever  since  the  dawn  of  time,  or  at  least  from 
the  period  "whereof  the  memory-  of  man  and  the 
records  of  history  run  not  to  the  contrary,"  the 
annals  of  the  human  race  have  been  largely 
filled  up  with  narratives  of  the  many  religions  of 
the  world,  and  of  the  wars  and  devastations 
resulting  from  the  hatreds  and  antagonisms  of 
the  adherents  of  the  different  faiths.  Each 
always  claimed  a  divine  origin,  and  the  prophets 
and  priests  of  each  system  furnished,  as  they 
claimed,  ample  proofs  to  the  people  of  its  divinity, 
and  whenever  their  power  was  sufficiently  great, 
demanded,  under  dire  penalties,  absolute  sub- 
mission to  the  decrees  of  heaven  as  promulgated 
by  them.  Whether  there  was  ever  an  original 
primary  revelation  from  God  to  man  in  the  very 
beginning  of  time,  we  do  not  know.  Even 
Genesis  does  not  teach  any.  Some  great  scholars 
believe  there  was  such  ancient  revelation ;  but  if 
so,  it  was  probably  only  traditional  and  soon  lost 
or  corrupted.  Judging  from  the  changes  which 
scholars  of  oriental  languages  say  have  crept 
into  the  religions  of  Zoroaster  and  Moses,  and 
even  into  the  teachings  of  Christ  and  His  Apostles, 
it  seems  imavoidable  that  religions  should  be 
corrupted  in  the  evolutions  of  time,  especially  in 


sS  Evolution  of  Religions 

ages  of  great  ignorance  and  superstition,  when 
there  were  no  printed  books  and  few  manu- 
scripts, or  through  incompetency  of  translations, 
or  work  done  in  order  to  conform  to  the  varying 
creeds  of  enthusiasts  and  bigots,  or  partially  to 
amalgamate  the  power  and  policy  of  the  period 
with  existing  religions.  Zoroastrianism,  the  oldest 
religion  of  the  world,  certainly  older  than  the 
religions  of  Egypt  and  India  of  three  thousand 
years  ago,  was  undoubtedly  in  its  original  form 
superior  to  the  religion  of  Moses,  or  any  other  of 
the  ancient  religions,  in  that  it  taught  of  only 
one  God  and  resurrection,  immortality  and 
eternal  life,  without  the  barbarism  of  animal  or 
human  sacrifices,  or  the  delusion  of  an  atoning 
mediator  between  the  Merciful  Father  and  His 
earthly  children.  It  is  really  the  primary  religion 
so  far  as  known. 

The  religion  of  the  Hebrews  hardly  gave  a 
hint  of  immortality.  Its  bloody  and  impure 
sacrificial  rites  had  no  higher  authority  than  the 
similar  worships  of  the  heathen  nations  around 
them.  The  fact  that  the  one  religion  was  mono- 
theistic and  the  others  polytheistic  never  sancti- 
fied such  degrading  worship.  Sacrificial  offerings 
to  God  were  simply  the  product  of  ignorant, 
benighted  superstitions,  and  could  not  have  had 
the  sanction  of  the  Almighty.  It  is  doubtful 
if  the  Israelites  did  not  believe  that  other  nations 
had  living  gods  of   their  own,  and  only  believed 


Comparisons  of  Religions  39 

that  Israel's  God  was  the  greatest.  It  may  be 
somewhat  shocking  to  the  religious  ideas  and 
sensibilities  of  most  Jews  and  Christians  to 
associate  the  Mosaic  worship  in  any  sense  with 
that  of  the  ancient  surroimding  nations,  but  the 
sacrificial  services  were  much  alike  and  grew  out 
of  similar  degrading  conceptions  of  God,  namely, 
that  the  savor  of  sacrifices  was  pleasant  to  Him, 
and  would  induce  Him  to  grant  expiation  for 
sins.  We  know  it  is  said  that  the  sacrifices  of 
the  Hebrews  were  anti-types  of  Jesus,  and  were 
partly  so  instituted  by  God,  but  the  Torah  or  the 
prophets  give  no  authority  for  such  teaching. 
Such  doctrines  were  originated  long  after  the 
crucifixion.  They  were  not  taught  by  Jesus. 
The  sacrificial  rites  were  denounced  by  nearly  all 
the  prophets.^  Such  ideas  as  the  Almighty  being 
gratified  and  appeased  by  the  "sweet  savor" 
arising  from  the  smell  of  the  burning  victims  on 
the  altars  certainly  originated  in  the  same  igno- 
rant and  unhallowed  conceptions  of  God  as 
indeed  the  sacrificial  worship  of  all  other  nations. 
To  us  it  seems  sacrilegious  to  suppose  that  God 
ever  authorized  it.  The  best  proof  that  such 
worship  was  unhallowed  and  debasing  is  that  the 
Israelites  were  much  of  the  time,  nay  most  of  the 
time,  even  in  the  land  of  promise  to  which  God 
had  led  them,  and  notwithstanding  their  Mosaic 
Torah  and  the  teachings  and  warnings  of  many 

'  Isaiah  i.  and  Micah  vi. 


40  Evolution  of  Religions 

prophets,  gross  idolaters,  even  frequently  sacri- 
ficing human  victims  to  Moloch,  Baal,  Rimmon, 
Ashtarte,  and  other  gods.  They  were  in  no 
sense  better  than,  at  some  periods  if  as  good  as, 
some  of  the  surroimding  nations. 

For  their  general  wickedness,  vile  sacrifices,  and 
besotted  idolatries,  ten  of  the  twelve  tribes  of 
Israel  were  finally  conquered  and  exiled  en  masse 
from  the  Promised  Land  by  Assyrian  invaders, 
and  became  in  time  so  thoroughly  amalgamated 
and  incorporated  with  their  conquerors,  or  scat- 
tered over  the  world,  that  they  not  only  lost  their 
old  religion  and  became  aliens  to  all  the  ancient 
promises  and  types,  but  the  strains  of  blood  and 
ties  of  kindred  with  their  Judean  and  Benjamitic 
brethren  were  also  entirely  lost  and  have  never 
been  gathered  together  again.  Thus  notwith- 
standing the  wonderful  events  of  their  history, 
and  the  amazing  miracles  which,  if  true,  they  and 
their  fathers  had  witnessed  for  centuries,  and  the 
common  laws  and  religion  which,  it  would  seem, 
ought  to  have  bound  them  together  forever  as 
one  people,  a  great  majority  of  the  "  Holy  People" 
were  disrupted  from  the  rest  and  passed  in  a  few 
years  into  oblivion.  While  about  one  hundred 
and  thirty-three  years  afterwards  their  brethren 
of  Judah  and  Benjamin,  as  wicked  and  almost  as 
idolatrous,  having  at  one  time,  for  a  generation  or 
two,  entirely  lost  their  old  faith,  ^  were,  like  the 

*  II  Chronicles  xxxiv. 


Comparisons  of  Religions  41 

ten  tribes,  torn  from  their  county  and  exiled 
to  Babylon,  never  to  be  again  a  sovereign  people, 
excepting  for  a  few  years  at  one  time  imder  the 
government  of  one  of  the  Maccabees. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  best  and  only  rational 
religions  of  the  world  have  been  and  are  the 
Zoroastrian,  Confucian,  Buddhist,  Christian, 
Modem  Jewish,  and  Mohammedan  religions, 
purest  in  their  original  ideals  and  ethics,  and 
always  free,  excepting  the  ancient  Jewish,  from  the 
degrading  sacrifices  and  rituals  of  heathen  reli- 
gions. The  sanction  of  heaven  seems  to  have 
attested  to  the  inspiration  in  greater  or  less  degree 
of  each  of  those  religions  and  to  the  necessity  for 
them,  in  the  divine  economy,  in  the  various  ages 
and  countries  of  their  origins,  in  that  they  each 
still  exist  and  have  stood  the  tests  of  many  cen- 
turies, and  are  even  yet  great  evolutionary  factors 
in  the  world  of  to-day.  Hereafter  when  the  mis- 
sion of  each,  in  the  providence  of  God,  is  accom- 
plished, they  may,  and  doubtless  will,  all  be 
merged  and  absorbed  into  the  faith  of  the  greatest 
of  prophets,  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  Son  of  God,  and 
all  their  temples  become  shrines  of  His  universal 
worship.  Such,  we  believe,  will  be  the  finale  of 
the  great  political  and  religious  evolutionary 
elements  of  the  age  in  the  century  before  us. 
"The  History  of  the  Worid,"  the  Rev.  Dr.  Briggs 
says,  "is  God's  training  and  education  of  the 
human  race,   and  all  the  great  religions  of  the 


42  Evolution  of  Religions 

world  were  factors  in  that  training."  Zoroaster's 
was  a  grand  religion,  and,  we  think,  second  only 
to  Christianity,  which  was  ultimately  evolved 
from  it  and  the  Mosaic  economies.  Three  thou- 
sand years  ago  it  was  the  great  religion  of  the 
Orient.  Its  eternal  fires,  its  nightly  emblems  of 
Deity,  substituted  for  His  temporarily  obscured 
but  grander  emblem,  the  sun,  blazed  for  many 
centuries  on  hill  and  mountain  tops  from  the 
Euphrates  to  the  Himalayas,  and  from  the  Per- 
sian Sea  to  the  Caspian,  and  were  only  extin- 
guished in  Persian  blood,  when  the  Moslems, 
under  the  Caliph  Omar,  about  the  year  650  a.d., 
conquered  Persia  under  the  black  banner  of  the 
Prophet,  and  gave  the  followers  of  Zoroaster  the 
alternative  of  belief  in  the  Koran,  exile  from 
their  native  land,  or  the  sword.  After  Zoroaster, 
Moses,  Confucius,  and  Buddha  came  in  succession 
as  messengers  of  God  to  men,  and  were  the  expo- 
nents of  their  own  systems  of  faith,  each  grand, 
pure,  and  beautiful,  all  monotheists,  only  differing 
in  some  doctrines  and  forms  of  worship.  The 
ancient  priesthood  of  Moses  ceased  to  exist  with 
the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Romans. 
Their  gorgeous,  half -barbaric  sacrificial  institu- 
tions and  ceremonies  are  only  known  in  Bible 
story.  Jesus  came,  and  His  religion  recognized 
no  sacrificial  services.  His  sermons  were  expo- 
sitions of  the  highest  and  noblest  teachings  of 
Moses  and  the  prophets,  unfolding  their  lessons 


Comparisons  of  Religions  43 

of  truth  to  all  the  world,  Jew  and  Gentile  alike, 
and  combining  with  them  the  doctrines  of  the 
resurrection  and  immortality  of  the  soul  and 
eternal  life,  tenets  not  taught,  or  if  so  only  dimly 
and  indirectly,  in  the  old  Scriptures,  but  long 
before  taught  in  the  Zend  A  vesta.  His  religion 
was  based  on  love;  those  of  Zoroaster  and  Moses 
on  fear.  The  truth  as  it  came  from  the  lips  of 
Jesus  and  His  Apostles  (it  was  not  WTitten  in 
books  for  a  long  time)  spread  rapidly  over  all  the 
countries  bordering  on  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
and  in  less  than  three  centuries  oven\^helmed  the 
gorgeous  but  sensual  sacrificial  worship  and 
magnificent  temples  of  Eg^'-ptian,  Grecian,  and 
Roman  gods  and  goddesses;  their  priesthoods 
vanished,  and  their  memories  only  survive  now 
in  classic  lore  and  history. 


CHAPTER  III 

ANCIENT  CHRISTIANITY 

UP  to  the  time  of  the  triumph  of  Christianity 
over  Roman  idolatry  in  the  reign  of  the  Em- 
peror Constantine  the  Great,  about  the  year  315 
A.D.,  the  simple  doctrines  of  Jesus  had  been  mainly 
purely  taught.  There  were  no  creeds  to  confuse 
and  fetter  men's  minds.  The  various  churches 
were  independent  of  any  outside  control,  and 
their  pastors  taught  only  the  plain  tenets  of 
Christ  and  His  Apostles,  in  which  love  and  charity 
to  all  men,  faith  in  God,  and  following  in  the 
footsteps  of  Jesus,  were  the  great  themes.  A 
triune  Deity  was  imknown. 

Edward  E.  Hale  says:  "Cardinal  Newman  put 
the  truth  forcibly,  but  not  too  forcibly,  when  he 
said  of  the  Catholic  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  '  The 
creeds  of  that  early  day  make  no  mention  in 
their  letter  of  the  Catholic  doctrine  at  all.  They 
make  mention  indeed  of  a  three}  But  that  there 
is  any  mystery  in  the  doctrine,  that  the  three  are 
one,  that  they  are  co-equal,  co-eternal,  all  omnipo- 
tent, all  incomprehensible,  is  not  stated  and  never 
could  be  gathered  from  them.'  "     He  continues 

*  North  American  Review,  vol.  148,  p.  97. 
44 


Ancient  Christianity  45 

later:*  "Here  is  the  absolute  religion  which 
Jesus  Christ  proclaimed  to  the  world,  faith,  or  a 
steady  belief  in  God  and  in  His  absolute  presence ; 
hope,  a  steady  sense  of  immortality  working  in  a 
life  which  immortals  lead;  love,  which  is  now 
called  '  altruism '  or  a  feeling  on  the  part  of  every 
man  that  he  does  not  live  for  himself  alone,  but 
that  he  lives  for  the  whole  race.  These  three 
constitute  the  way  of  life,  as  Jesus  Christ  under- 
stood it,  and  as  He  tried  to  make  the  world  under- 
stand it." 

The  doctrines  of  the  early  Christians  were  the 
same  as  those  preached  by  Arius,  Pelagius,  Celes- 
tius,  and  the  bishops  and  pastors  of  the  Eastern 
churches.  Unitarianism  in  those  early  days  was 
the  faith  of  Christians  generally.  But  orthodox 
interpretations  and  mysticisms,  bigotry  and  fanat- 
icism, \mder  the  influence  of  monastic  and  other 
recluse  religious  orders,  had  already  taken  root, 
and  with  other  heresies  and  innovations  in  pure 
Christianity  were  rapidly  developing  in  that 
superstitious  age.  Finally,  at  the  Councils  of 
Nicea,  325  a.d.,  and  of  Carthage,  411  a.d.,  the 
adherents  of  the  Athanasian  Creed,  tmder  the 
leadership  of  the  Roman  pontiff,  and  many 
other  great  Western  bishops,  triumphed  over 
liberal  Christianity.  By  such  incomprehensible 
and  mysterious  tenets  they  vastly  increased  the 
power  of  the  Church  in  that  benighted  age  and 

>  North  American  Review,  vol.  148,  p.  loi. 


46  Evolution  of  Religions 

riveted  their  control  over  the  souls  and  con- 
sciences of  men.  The  orthodox  creed  was  adopted 
only  by  a  small  majority  at  each  council.  The 
followers  of  Arius  and  his  colleagues  were  put 
under  the  ban  of  the  Roman  Empire,  which  thus 
in  its  decadence,  after  persecuting  for  centuries 
the  followers  of  Christ,  espoused  at  last  a  mon- 
grel and  semi-pagan  religion  as  the  state  worship 
under  the  primacy  of  the  bishop  of  Rome.  From 
those  councils  the  dogmas  of  orthodoxy,  the 
departure  of  the  Christian  world  from  the  faith 
of  the  apostolic  times,  and  the  admixture  of 
pagan  ceremonies  and  festivals  in  the  worship  of 
the  Church,  date  their  prevalence,  if  not  their 
origin.  Interpolations  and  alterations  into  the 
text  of  the  Scriptures  were  made  to  fit  the  new 
creed  and  the  fanaticism  and  bigotry  of  the 
age.  Ecclesiasticism  was  maturing  its  plans  for 
supreme  domination  over  the  minds  and  con- 
sciences of  men,  and  the  Pope,  with  his  consistory 
of  Cardinals,  became  the  absolute  arbiter  for 
centuries  of  future  Christianity.  The  Apoc- 
ryphal Books  of  the  Old  Testament  universally 
previously  rejected  by  the  early  churches  as 
merely  human  productions  without  a  shade  of 
inspiration,  and  now  rejected  as  such  by  all 
Protestant  denominations  throughout  the  world, 
were  during  the  fifth  and  sixth  centuries  a.d. 
admitted  by  Rome  into  the  sacred  canon,  as 
were  also  the  Apocalyptic   dreams  of   St.  John 


Ancient  Christianity  47 

in  the  Book  of  Revelation,  which  had  also 
previously  been  denied  admission  into  the  New 
Testament  Canon.  The  amazing  fables  collected 
and  published  some  years  ago  by  the  Rev.  S. 
Baring-Gould  in  his  book  of  "Legends  of  the 
Patriarchs  and  Prophets,"  and  also  those  pub- 
lished by  Rev.  Bernard  Pick  in  his  "  Apocryphal 
Life  of  Jesus,"  were,  during  all  the  dark  ages  of 
ignorance  and  superstition,  of  common  belief  in 
the  Christian  world.  They  were  supplemented 
by  tales  of  myriads  of  miracles  of  subsequent 
saints  and  saintesses  performed  during  a  thousand 
years  in  the  ages  succeeding  the  Apostles  and 
fully  believed  for  fifteen  hundred  years.* 

After  the  Councils  of  Nice  and  Carthage,  the 
true  light  of  biblical  inspiration  became  more 
and  more  perverted  and  obscured  by  incorrect 
renderings  and  interpolations  of  the  original  text, 
and  has  only  been  partially  restored  and  corrected 
since  the  sixteenth  century  reformation  in  Europe. 
During  the  century  just  closed,  and  especially  of 
late  years,  the  liberal  thought,  independent 
criticism,  and  widely  extended  research  and 
investigation  of  many  great  minds,  notably  Max 
MuUer,  Dr.  Channing,  Dr.  Priestley,  Theodore 
Parker,  Julius  Wellhausen,  Straus,  Dr.  Ernest 
Renan,  Rev.  J.  H.  Mills,  Dr.  Savage,  Eijdersheim, 

'  Lecky's  "History  of  Rationalism  in  Europe."  Maury's 
'Legends  of  the  Saints  of  the  Middle  Ages."  Milman's 
"  History  of  Latin  Christianity," 


48  Evolution  of  Religions 

Dr.  Charles  Briggs,  McGiffert,  Hollis,  and  others 
whose  names  are  too  numerous  to  mention  here, 
have  brought  about  a  great  awakening  in  and 
restoration  of  primitive  Bible  truth.  The  literary- 
evolutions  of  this  age  in  all  fields  of  knowledge, 
natural  sciences,  historical  research,  social  and 
political  economies,  and  general  religious  inquiry, 
are  culminating  in  grander  conceptions  of  the 
Almighty,  of  the  mission  and  teachings  of  Jesus, 
and  also  of  the  works  of  Zoroaster,  Confucius,  and 
Buddha,  than  have  ever  before  been  realized. 
Their  religions  were  for  the  world.  Moses*  was 
only  for  Palestine  —  one  people. 

Indeed,  the  nineteenth  century  was  in  many 
respects  the  most  wonderful  in  all  the  annals 
of  time.  It  was  an  imparalleled  epoch.  The 
far-reaching  discoveries  in  all  the  domains  of 
science  were  more  varied  and  of  greater  benefit 
to  the  human  race  than  the  mere  rudimentary 
discoveries  in  all  the  preceding  centuries.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  mechanical  arts  and 
machinery.  More  too  was  accomplished  during 
the  last  century  in  the  extension  of  civilization 
and  Christianity  than  in  all  the  previous  years 
since  the  Savior  lived  on  earth.  Practically, 
excluding  this  Western  continent,  which  had 
already  been  partially  settled  by  migrations 
from  Christian  Europe,  at  the  commencement 
of  the  nineteenth  century  the  limits  of  Christian 
civilization  were   really  more    circumscribed  in 


Ancient  Christianity  49 

the  rest  of  the  world  than  they  were  before 
the  Moslem  conquests  in  Asia  and  Africa  in 
630-800  A.D.  All  the  Isles  of  the  Paciiic  and 
Indian  Oceans  were  a  hundred  years  ago  in 
absolute  heathen  darkness.  Now  in  nearly  all 
those  islands,  including  the  continent  of  Aus- 
tralia and  much  of  "Darkest  Africa,"  the  people 
are  civilized  and  Christianized,  though  the  work 
has  been  accomplished,  it  should  in  justice  be 
said,  as  much,  or  more,  through  the  commercial 
intercourse  and  government  and  arms  of  Christian 
countries,  notably  of  England,  as  through  mission 
work. 

The  Christianity  of  this  age  while  not  yet,  as 
preached  and  practiced  by  many  sects,  the  same 
broad  and  beautiful  faith  as  taught  by  Jesus  and 
His  Apostles,  yet  is  essentially  different  from 
and  better  than  the  illiberalism,  intolerance, 
inhumanity,  and  bigotry  of  four  hundred  or  even 
of  one  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  dark  theology 
and  predestination  of  John  Calvin  and  Jonathan 
Edwards  largely  voiced  and  led  the  religious 
sentiments  of  the  Christian  world.  Creeds  once 
believed  tmiversally,  though  still  used  formally 
by  the  orthodox  denominations,  are  generally 
regarded  as  mere  antiquated  and  hollow  services 
now,  and  some  of  their  supposed  essentials  of 
faith  are  really  believed  by  few  ministers  or  lay- 
men in  their  orthodox  terms  to-day.  Liberalism 
in  religion,  as  in  politics,  is  the  trend  of  thought; 


50  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  bigotry  and  superstition,  allied  with  worn- 
out  and  absurd  confessions  of  faith,  have  little 
influence  over  ordinarily  intelligent  men  as  com- 
pared with  a  generation  ago,  and  as  factors  in 
religion  are  becoming  dormant.  Christ  and  His 
Apostles  and  the  early  Christian  Fathers  for  two 
or  three  centuries  had  no  rigid  creeds.  Why 
should  their  successors  have?  The  highest  intel- 
lects of  our  day,  discarding  the  mysterious  and 
baseless  doctrine  of  the  trinity,  as  savoring  of 
old  Egyptian  and  Indian  mythologies,  of  the 
Trinity  of  Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus,  or  of  Varuna, 
Mithra,  and  Indra,  and  as  unauthorized  by  the 
Bible  and  derogatory  to  man's  highest  concep- 
tion^ of  the  Almighty,  believe  now  with  Moses 
and  the  prophets  in  their  solemn  and  repeated 
declaration  of  the  imity  of  God,  that  "The  Lord 
our  God  is  one  God,"  and  that  Jesus  Christ  spoke 
literally  when  He  said,  "  My  Father  is  greater  than 
I ;  I  can  of  mine  own  self  do  nothing.''  *  God  is 
only  and  absolutely  one.  To  this  the  one,  first, 
grand,  central  tenet  of  his  faith,  the  Jew  now,  as 
his  fathers  did,  still  clings  with  deathless 
tenacity,  the  same  as  through  all  the  exiles  and 
persecutions  of  eighteen  centuries  of  bigoted 
Christian  fanaticism  and  intolerance. 

Jesus  we  love  and  venerate.  We  believe  in 
Him  as  the  Son  of  God,  and  the  great  teacher  and 
guide  of  men;  and  whatever  terms  of  glory  and 

*  John  V.  30,  xiv.  28. 


Ancient  Christianity  51 

honor  are  given  Him,  we  think  He  is  entitled  to 
them  in  the  highest  sense.  But  whatever  the 
occasional  ascriptions  of  His  delegated  power  and 
quasi-divinity  may  mean  in  biblical  verse  and 
poetic  story,  they  do  not  mean  that  Jesus  is  God. 
There  is  nothing  of  the  trinity  in  the  Bible. 
Jesus  was  undoubtedly  divinely  sent  and  com- 
missioned to  promulgate  a  new  gospel  of  love 
and  immortality  to  the  world,  and  for  all  the 
world,  Jew  and  Gentile,  the  great  and  the  lowly, 
grander  than  Moses  and  the  prophets  ever  taught. 
Such  was  Jesus'  mission  to  the  world.  So  he 
taught  on  Mount  Olivet  in  His  great  sermon,  and 
the  only  creed  He  ever  enunciated  or  sanctioned 
was  contained  in  the  peerless  prayer  which  He 
there  formulated  for  His  disciples  as  embodying 
everything  essential  to  be  believed  and  followed. 
Such  a  sublime  prayer  was  never  before  uttered,  or, 
if  uttered,  never  recorded.  So  simple,  grand,  and 
all  embracing,  —  "Love  God,  trust  in  Him,  love 
all  men,  and  forgive,  as  ye  shall  be  forgiven, 
on  sincere  repentance."  No  more,  no  less.  No 
vicarious  sacrifice,  no  atonement  taught  or  even 
hinted  at.  The  great  Chinese  teacher  Confucius 
had  laid  down  the  Golden  Rule  six  himdred  years 
before  Jesus  taught  it,  but  he  gave  to  his  followers 
no  form  of  prayer.  The  world  needs  no  other 
creed  than  the  Golden  Rule  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  and  the  spirit  of  that  prayer  is  sufficient 
for  all  human  prayers.     It  is  the  seal  of  Jesus' 


52  Evolution  of  Religions 

sonship  to  God,  of  His  brotherhood  to  man. 
How  all  embracing  and  universal  in  application, 
how  humble  and  confiding  in  its  sense  of  power  and 
assurance  of  acceptance,  this  wonderful  petition 
to  the  Eternal  Father !  This  brief  but  matchless 
creed  of  divinity  in  imity,  of  liberty,  equality, 
fraternity  !  There  is  in  it  —  and  we  note  it 
again  —  no  suggestion  of  the  trinity,  nor  of  total 
depravity,  nor  of  the  doctrine  of  vicarious  atone- 
ment for  sins  as  a  prerequisite  for  the  salvation 
of  men  from  eternal  punishment.  These  dogmas 
are  all,  as  if  purposely,  ignored.  Only  the  promise 
of  pardon  and  eternal  love  remains,  *'  Father,  for- 
give our  sins  as  we  forgive  all  who  sin  against  us." 
This  prayer  alone  and  absolutely,  negatives  the 
creed  of  orthodoxy.  In  the  suggestiveness  of  its 
all-embracing  petitions  and  significant  omissions, 
it  is  the  creed  of  creeds  and  alone  has  the  stamp 
of  divinity. 


CHAPTER   IV 

MODERN  RELIGIONS 

TT  is  estimated  by  statisticians  that  there  are 
■'■  now  about  1,400,000,000  people  inhabiting 
the  earth,  and  they  are  supposed  generally  to  be 
believers  in  or  adherents  of  the  various  systems 
of  religion  now  existing  in  the  following  propor- 
tions of  populations,  viz : 

Brahmans "...  90,000,000 

Buddhists 450,000,000 

Confucianists 150,000,000 

Christians 400,000,000 

Jews 10,000,000 

Mohammedans 200,000,000 

Mormons 2,000,000 

Pagans 97,000,000 

Zoroastrians 1,000,000 


Total 


1,400,000,000 


Not  many  people  in  Christian  countries,  and  few 
indeed  of  other  coimtries,  even  of  the  educated 
classes,  have  any  more  than  a  general  and  super- 
ficial acquaintance  with  any  other  religions  of  the 
world  than  their  owti.  They  may  know  generally 
that  the  believers  in  those  other  systems  than  the 

53 


54  Evolution  of  Religions 

Christian  number  considerably  over  two  thirds 
of  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth,  but  of  the 
comparative  numbers  of  the  followers  of  other 
faiths,  and  of  their  doctrines  and  forms  of  worship, 
they  know  very  little,  and  all,  excepting  their 
own,  are  regarded  by  the  masses  in  Christian 
countries  as  pagan  or  false  religions.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  a  revelation  to  most  people  if  the 
simple  theology  and  the  generally  pure  and 
beautiful  ethics  of  the  Zoroastrian,  Buddhist,  and 
Confucian  sacred  books,  and  even  of  the  Al 
Koran,  were  made  familiar  to  them,  and  they 
could  know  that  many  of  the  grandest  precepts 
of  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  of  the  gospel  of 
the  Christ  had  been  taught  in  other  far  distant 
regions  from  Palestine  centuries  before  the  Savior's 
time,  and  in  the  case  of  Zoroastrianism  even  cen- 
turies anterior  to  Moses  and  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. Confucianism  and  Buddhism  were  the 
great  religions  of  China  and  India  five  hundred 
years  before  the  Savior  preached  in  Palestine. 

We  have  said  considerable  already  about  those 
three  other  ancient  religions,  and  of  course  any- 
thing like  an  exposition  of  their  systems  would  be 
foreign  to  the  scope  and  purpose  of  this  book, 
however  interesting  and  instructive  it  might  be. 
Hence,  we  only  propose  to  make  a  brief  com- 
parison of  some  of  the  tenets  of  those  religions 
with  the  Jewish  and  Christian. 

Of  Brahmanism  some  exposition  of  its  sacred 


Modern  Religions  55 

books,  the  Rig-Vedas,  would,  of  course,  be  inter- 
esting to  many,  but  for  purposes  of  illustration 
and  comparison  with  the  other  modem  religions, 
their  ethics  are  so  mixed  up  with  pagan  and 
polytheistic  rites  and  teachings,  and  the  books 
so  full  of  fabulous  history  and  miracles,  that  little 
benefit  would  result  from  a  general  synopsis  of 
them.  While  it  is  one  of  the  oldest  religions  of 
the  world  and  still  has  many  devotees,  and  its 
moral  teachings  are  generally  good,  yet  it  is  a 
system  of  many  gods,  some  of  them  wicked  and 
impure,  and  all  its  worships  so  entirely  out  of 
harmony  with  the  age  that  the  world  were  best 
without  it.  Its  decadence  is  rapidly  progressing. 
Excepting  to  the  historian  and  student  of  San- 
skrit literature,  its  system  of  worship,  its  priests, 
castes,  and  sacred  books  do  not  merit  much  con- 
sideration or  present  any  great  attractions. 

As  to  Moslemism,  it  may  be  said  of  the  Al 
Koran  that  its  moral  teachings  are  mainly  good; 
its  monotheism  and  absolute  prohibition  of  all 
forms  and  symbols  of  trinity,  or  of  any  manifesta- 
tions or  representation  of  God,  or  any  adoration 
of  the  same,  are  grand  and  sublime.  Morally, 
however,  it  is  on  a  lower  plane  than  Christianity. 
It  allows  polygamy  and  slavery,  as  does  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  degrades  woman  by  taking  scarcely 
any  note  of  her  as  a  participant  in  the  religion 
and  hope  of  the  faithful  followers  of  the  Prophet 
in  this  life,  and  scarcely  recognizes  her  prospects 


56  Evolution  of  Religions 

of  heaven,  and  then  only  as  menials  for  the  brave 
warriors  who  fought  under  his  banners,  and  for 
the  beautiful  houris  who  are  companions  of  their 
pleasures  there.  Its  historical  sketches  and  allu- 
sions to  the  old  patriarchs,  prophets,  and  apostles, 
are  merely  plagiarisms  from  our  Bible,  without 
its  beauty  of  style.  Hence  in  these,  and  in  many 
other  respects,  this  religion  is  inferior  to  our 
Scriptures.  A  comparison  and  parallel  with  them 
would  be  unattractive  and  useless.  It  is  a  great 
literary  production,  and  doubtless  if  translated 
so  as  to  bring  out  all  the  prophets'  ideas  in  the 
beauties  and  natural  meter  of  its  Arabic  poetry 
would  be  a  very  interesting  and  attractive  book. 
Islamism  is  on  the  wane;  its  palmiest  days  are 
passed.  It  served  the  world  well  in  the  provi- 
dence of  God  in  rescuing  Arabia,  Northern  Africa, 
and  Western  Asia  from  the  semi-idolatrous,  half- 
pagan  image  worship  of  the  Savior  and  Mary  his 
mother,  a  degenerate  Christianity  into  which  those 
countries  were  lapsing  after  Rome,  the  Empire, 
and  the  Church  had  crushed  out  Unitarianism 
or  Arianism  by  intolerance  and  persecution. 
It  has  preserved  in  those  lands  the  worship  of 
Allah,  the  only  one  God,  and  it  conserved  for 
centuries,  literature  and  the  sciences  from  the 
destructive  barbarism  and  godless  superstitions 
of  the  Dark  Ages  of  Europe.  In  fact,  the  Moslem 
universities  in  Spain,  during  the  six  centuries 
of  its  supremacy  there,  were  the  only  oases  in  the 


Modern  Religions  57 

European  literary  desert  of  that  period.  During 
the  same  time  Arabia  produced  many  great 
scholars  and  scientists.  The  renowned  Sultan 
Saladin  was  a  liberal  patron  of  learning. 

In  the  evolutions  of  time  and  the  progress  of 
education  and  civilization,  those  conditions  have 
changed,  and  Islamism  instead  of  being,  as  once, 
a  conserv^er,  has  become  an  obstacle  in  the  paths 
of  progress  and  civilization,  and  the  diffusion  of  a 
purer  Christianity  than  it  once  supplanted.  There 
are  really  many  beautiful  things  in  the  Koran, 
although  Dr.  Sale's  translation  of  it  is  said  to  give 
but  an  indifferent  version  of  it.  We  append  here 
for  comparison  literal  poetic  translations  of  half 
a  dozen  Suras  by  a  brilliant  oriental  scholar, 
Daniel  J.  Rankin. 

Sura  I. 

In  the  name  of  the  merciful  God,  the  pitiful, 

Praise  be  to  God,  to  the  Lord  of  the  World, 

The  merciful,  pitiful  one, 

King  of  the  day  on  which  all  men  are  judged. 

We  worship  Thee,  asking  for  aid. 

Lead  us  in  the  path  of  those  guided  aright, 

The  path  of  those  pleasing  to  Thee ; 

Not  in  the  path  of  those  causing  Thee  wrath, 

Nor  of  those  wandering  astray. 

Sura  ex. 

In  the  name  of  the  merciful  God,  the  pitiful. 
When  the  help  of  God  shall  come 


58  Evolution  of  Religions 

And  the  victory  be  won, 
And  mankind  in  troops  ye  see 
Unto  God's  religion  flee, 
Then  extol  thy  Lord  in  praise, 
His  forgiveness  ask  always. 
He  His  pardon  never  stays. 

Sura  CXI. 

Shall  perish  his  hands,  yea,  perish  himself, 

Abu  Laheb,  called  Father  of  Flames. 

Nor  profit  his  wealth,  nor  profit  his  pelf. 

He  shall  be  burned  in  a  furnace  of  flames. 

His  wife  shall  carry  the  wood  on  her  arms. 

Bound  round  her  neck  with  a  rope  from  the  palms. 

Sura  CXII. 

In  the  name  of  the  merciful  God,  the  pitiful, 
Say  God,  He  is  one,  God  is  eternal. 
He  neither  begets,  nor  was  begotten, 
Nor  is  there  with  Him  any  to  liken. 

Sura  CXIII. 

In  the  name  of  the  merciful  God,  the  pitiful, 
Say  to  the  Lord  of  Dawning,  for  refuge  do  I  flee, 
From  evil  that  hath  been  created  and  may  follow  me, 
And  from  the  harm  of  darkening  night  when  I  o'er- 

shadowed  be, 
And  from  the  ill  of  women,  blowing  on  the  magic  knot. 
And  from  the  hand  of  envier,  when  envying  my  lot. 


Modern  Religions  59 

Sura  CXIV. 

In  the  name  of  the  merciful  God,  the  pitiful, 

Say  to  the  Lord  of  all  mankind,  for  refuge  do  I  fly, 

The  King  of  men,  the  God  of  men, 

From  the  withdrawing  whisperer, 

Who  in  men's  hearts  doth  lie. 

From  "sin  and  men,  deliver  me." 

Of  the  Latter  Day  Saints,  or  Mormons,  little 
need  be  said  additional.  Their  Bible,  like  ours, 
divided  into  a  number  of  books  of  fabled  histories 
and  prophecies,  is  but  an  insipid  imitation  of 
scriptural  style.  It  is  needless  to  say  that  it  is 
all  fiction,  without  a  scintilla  of  evidence  to 
support  any  of  its  stories.  It  is  said  to  have 
been  originally  written  about  181 5  by  Rev.  Sol. 
Spaulding,  of  Washington,  Pennsylvania,  as  a 
fiction,  printed  in  Pittsburg  by  one  Sydney 
Rigdon,  and  by  him  put  into  Joseph  Smith's 
hands.  Perhaps  together  they  framed  the  story 
of  its  discovery  in  Western  New  York.  It  speaks 
of  God  and  Jesus  Christ  much  in  the  style  of  our 
Scriptures,  teaches  good  morals,  and  is  thoroughly 
orthodox  on  the  doctrines  of  the  trinity,  vicarious 
atonement  for  sins,  eternal  pimishment,  etc. 
It  has  its  many  miracles.  The  custom  of  poly- 
gamy is  not  allowed  in  the  Mormon  Bible,  and  is 
especially  prohibited  in  the  Book  of  Jacob, 
chapter  ii.  After  the  Mormon  migration  to 
Utah   in    1845-46,  subsequent   revelations,  it   is 


6o  Evolution  of  Religions 

claimed,  were  given  to  Smith's  successor,  Brigham 
Young,  authorizing  plural  marriages  for  the 
purpose  of  more  rapidly  increasing  their  numbers 
and  building  up  Zion  (as  they  called  their  desert 
home)  against  their  enemies,  and  we  know  they 
were  not  slow  in  obeying  the  divine  will  in  this 
matter.  Singularly  enough,  and  contrary  to  the 
general  opinion  of  non-Mormons,  so  far  as  the 
author  has  learned  by  contact  with  the  Mormons 
in  Utah  and  elsewhere  years  ago,  and  from 
personal  conversation  with  many  Mormon  women, 
the  women  were  generally  more  enthusiastic  in 
favor  of  plural  marriages  than  the  men.  They 
were,  of  course,  in  favor  of  building  up  Zion 
rapidly,  but  the  principal  reason  they  gave  for 
wishing  to  have  female  partners  in  marital 
rights  and  duties  was  that,  as  their  husbands 
were  mostly  agriculturists,  gardeners,  dairymen, 
and  stock  raisers,  the  labor  of  opening  up  homes 
in  the  Utah  valleys  and  the  cares  of  housekeeping 
would  be  divided  and  made  easier  and  business 
made  more  profitable  by  several  wives  working 
together,  and  their  social  opportunities  would  be 
better.  This  was  doubtless  true  in  their  isolated 
homes. 

Confucianism,  the  religion  of  two  hundred 
millions  of  the  Chinese,  embracing  nearly  all  the 
educated  people  of  that  ancient  empire,  taught 
in  the  Analects  of  its  great  founder,  and  his  co- 
laborer,  Mencius,  is  a  system  of  rules  and  ethics 


Modern  Religions  6i 

for  social  life  and  citizenship  which  has  no 
superior.  Confucius  taught  the  existence  and 
almighty  power  of  God,  but  these  being  subjects 
beyond  his  exact  knowledge  or  comprehension, 
he  devoted  his  Hfe  and  great  talents  mainly  to 
teaching  his  fellow-men  their  duties  in  this  world. 
Says  Professor  J.  Thomas:'  "The  Chinese  sage 
has  enjoyed  a  renown  more  widely  extended  than 
that  of  any  other  person  of  the  human  race, 
excepting  Jesus  Christ,  and  none  other  than  the 
latter  has,  perhaps,  excelled  his  teachings  in 
simplicity,  practical  sincerity,  and  lofty  morality." 
Their  moral  plane  is  always  high  throughout  the 
Analects,  and  they  are  in  reference  to  religion, 
totally  immarred  by  any  repulsive  laws,  barba- 
rous rites,  absurd  sacrifices,  or  impure  social 
rules.  "What  you  do  not  want  done  unto  your- 
self, do  not  do  imto  others ' '  is  the  Golden  Rule  as 
given  in  their  Bible  with  more  terseness  than  in 
our  Scriptures.^  Confucius'  precepts  of  justice, 
forbearance  under  injuries,  benevolence,  politeness, 
and  charity,  or  love,  are  complements  of  the  best 
taught  in  any  religion.  The  virtues  of  conjugal 
fidelity,  chastity  in  all,  purity  of  life,  devotion  to 
parents,  love  of  children,  and  kindness  and 
veneration  for  the  aged,  indeed  all  the  virtues 
which  men  and  women  should  practice  are  most 
strongly  enjoined.     He  was  a  pure,  devoted,  great 

*  Johnson's  Encyclopedia,  p.  iii. 

'  The  Analects,  Book  v,  ch.  2,  and  Book  xv,  ch.  23. 


62  Evolution  of  Religions 

teacher  of  men,  and  who  can  say  not  an  inspired 
teacher?  And  if  from  God  "cometh  every  good 
and  perfect  gift,"  why  not,  and  worthy  to  be  the 
associate  of  Jesus  Christ  ?  Bigots  claim  that  only 
Bible  characters  were  inspired,  but  why  not  great 
characters  of  other  nations,  equally  as  good,  and 
equally  earnest  workers  for  good? 

We  next  examine  the  Zend  Avesta  of  the  dis- 
ciples of  Zoroaster,  and  the  tri-Pitakas  of  the 
Buddhists,  as  the  sacred  books  of  those  religions 
are  called,  each  claimed  by  believers  in  them  to 
be  revelations  from  God,  and  in  them  we  find 
declarations  of  the  attributes  and  character  of 
God  and  of  His  moral  laws  as  grand,  beautiful, 
and  pure  as  any  found  in  our  Bible.  Zoroaster 
was  a  prophet  of  the  world's  youth,  according  to 
history  about  2000  B.C.,  or  only  three  hundred 
and  fifty  years  after  the  Deluge,  according  to 
Bible  chronology.  Ancient  Persian  history  gives 
his  date,  however,  as  about  2500  e.g.  He  was 
probably  a  contemporary  of  Abraham,  the 
"Father  of  the  Faithful."  Shem,  the  son  of 
Noah,  lived,  according  to  same  chronology,  until 
about  1846  B.C.,  and,  therefore,  Zoroaster  was  a 
contemporary  of  his  also,  and,  doubtless,  as  did 
Abraham,  imbibed  his  religion  from  Shem.  The 
religion  of  Zoroaster  and  Abraham  was  doubtless 
the  same,  and  so  coming  down  from  Noah,  the 
father  of  Shem,  was  the  oldest  and  purest  faith 
of  the  world,  antedating  the  Mosaic  system  by 


Modern  Religions  63 

six  hundred  years.  Buddha  lived  about  600  B.C., 
and  was  probably  a  contemporary  of  the  great 
Chinese  sage  Confucius.  Zoroaster,  Buddha,  and 
Confucius  were  worthy  confreres  of  Moses  and 
the  Christ  in  their  divine  missions  of  religion. 
These  ancient  religions  of  Zoroaster,  Buddha,  and 
Confucius  once  each  influenced  mankind  as  much, 
and  jointly  now  have  and  always  had  far  more 
adherents  who  believed  and  died  in  those  faiths 
than  Judaism  and  Christianity,  now  or  ever, 
combined.  Zoroastrianism,  for  many  centuries 
when  Judaism  was  hardly  known  outside  of  the 
narrow  borders  of  Canaan,  was  the  universal 
religion  of  all  Central  Asia,  and  although  in  the 
evolutions  of  time  its  followers  now  only  number 
a  million  or  two,  there  was  a  time,  says  Max 
Miiller,*  "when  the  worship  of  Zoroaster's  God, 
Ormuzd  or  Ahura  Mazda,  threatened  to  rise 
triumphant  on  the  ruins  of  the  temples  of  all  other 
Gods.  If  the  battles  of  Marathon  and  Salamis 
had  been  lost  and  Greece  had  succtunbed  to  Persia, 
the  state  religion  of  the  empire  of  Cyrus  the 
Great,  which  was  the  worship  of  Ormuzd,  the  only 
God,  might  have  become  the  religion  of  the 
whole  civilized  world.  Persia,  under  Cyrus,  had 
absorbed  the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  empires; 
the  Jews  were  either  under  Persian  captivity  or 
under  Persian  sway  in  Palestine.  The  sacred 
monviments  of  Eg>^pt  had  been  mutilated  by  the 

*  "  A  German  Workshop,"  p.  159. 


64  Evolution  of  Religions 

hands  of  Persian  soldiers  who  worshiped  the 
only  one  God  and  who  abhorred  the  idolatrous 
emblems  on  temples,  sepulchers,  and  shrines. 
The  edicts  of  the  great  King,  "  the  King  of  Kings," 
were  sent  to  India,  to  Greece,  to  Scythia,  and  to 
Egypt,  and  if  by  the  grace  of  Ahura  Mazda, 
Darius,  the  successor  of  Cyrus,  had  crushed  the 
liberties  of  Greece  at  Marathon,  the  pure  faith 
of  Zoroaster  might  easily  have  superseded  the 
Olympic  fables.  This  was  the  Cyrus  the  Great 
who  ordered  the  building  of  the  second  temple 
at  Jerusalem  and  whose  edict  for  that  purpose, 
issued  in  the  first  year  of  his  reign  in  Babylon, 
536  B.C.,*  proclaimed  Zoroaster's  God,  in  whose 
faith  he  had  been  raised  and  crowned,  to  be  the 
"Lord  God  of  Heaven,"  who  had  given  him  all 
the  kingdoms  of  the  earth,  and  He  was  none 
other  than  Ahura  Mazda,  the  same  as  the  God 
of  Israel. 

The  power  of  Persia  was  broken  by  the  Mace- 
donian conqueror,  Alexander  the  Great,  several 
centuries  afterward,  and  she  never  again  recovered 
her  pristine  grandeur,  though  long  afterwards 
she  was  a  powerful  enemy  of  Rome.  Finally, 
in  634  A.D.,  the  old  empire  was  overthrown 
and  her  people  subjugated  by  the  Saracens  under 
the  Caliph  Omar.  In  fact,  it  is  due  to  these 
ruthless  Mohammedan  invaders  that  the  religion 
of  ancient  Persia,  once  the  glory  of  the  world,  is 

*  Book  of  Ezra,  ch.  i.  verses  i,  2,  3,  4. 


Modern  Religions  65 

now,  and  has  been  for  the  last  thousand  years, 
a  mere  curiosity  to  the  historian,  though  still 
believed  in  by  some  two  millions  of  brave  and 
devoted  worshipers  in  India.  The  Moslem  con- 
querors swept  Persia  with  the  besom  of  destruc- 
tion tmder  the  black  banners  of  the  Caliph, 
compelling  the  people  to  abandon  their  grand  old 
faith,  and  accept  the  religion  of  the  Koran,  or 
perish  by  the  sword.  A  few  brave  and  noble 
men  who  would  not  apostatize,  escaped  into 
India  and  were  protected  by  the  Buddhist 
monarchs,  and  are  now  generally  known  by  out- 
siders as"Parsees,  Guebers,  or  Fire-Worshipers." 
These  names,  though  not  recognized  by  the 
Zoroastrians,  were  given  to  them  by  their  enemies 
on  account  of  their  being  Parsis,  Parsees  (from 
Persia)  and  "  Fire- Worshipers,"  on  accoimt  of 
their  custom  of  maintaining  in  their  temples  and 
other  places  of  worship  a  perpetual  fire  as  an 
emblem  of  Deity,  and  also  from  their  habit  of 
bowing  daily  in  prayer  to  God  at  simrise  and 
sunset  before  the  sun  as  the  great  symbol  of  the 
Almighty,  bestowing,  like  its  Creator,  light,  heat, 
and  happiness  on  all  the  world.  These  people 
have  been  immortalized  by  Tom  Moore  in  his 
beautiful  poem  of  "The  Fire- Worshipers,"  one 
of  the  Lalla  Rookh  romances. 

Such  have  been  the  mutations  of  this  religion, 
the  oldest  of  time,  and  from  which  other  religions, 
certainly  the  Jewish,  Christian,  and  Mohammedan, 


66  Evolution  of  Religions 

in  turn,  derived  much  of  their  traditions  and 
grandest  doctrines.  Undoubtedly  the  Bible  story 
of  creation,  the  Garden  of  Eden,  the  fall  of  man, 
and  the  belief  in  Satan,  were  derived  from  Zoroas- 
trian  legends,  and,  through  the  Persian  and 
Magian  priests,  communicated  to  Ezra  and 
other  Scripture  compilers  during  the  Captivity. 
Many  thousands  of  Jews  settled  in  Persia,  as  we 
learn  from  the  story  of  Queen  Esther,  and  from 
Josephus,  numerous  descendants  of  whom  have 
ever  since  remained  there.  The  Zoroastrian  was 
a  great  religion,  sublime  in  its  conceptions  of 
deity,  grandest  in  its  early  days  before  the  incor- 
poration of  Satan  as  a  coordinate  god,  and  other 
corruptions  of  Chaldean  Magian  worship  crept 
into  its  beautiful  theological  and  moral  code.  In 
after-times,  after  those  innovations,  the  Zoroas- 
trians  undoubtedly  believed  in  dual  deities,  one 
supremely  good,  the  other  supremely  evil,  both 
possessing  nearly  equal  powers,  at  least  on  earth, 
if  not  elsewhere.  But  such  was  not  the  original 
teaching  of  Zoroaster,  but  incorporated  into  his 
religion  by  the  Magian  priests  after  the  union  of 
Persia  and  Media  and  the  conquest  of  Babylon. 
He  was  a  great  leader  of  men,  and  we  believe  his 
mission  was  from  God  Undoubtedly  during  the 
Jewish  exile,  as  we  can  gather  from  the  writings 
of  those  times,  and  the  Apocryphal  Books  of  the 
Bible  subsequently  written,  the  belief  in  Satan 
was  then   first  adopted  by  the  Jews,  and  with 


Modern  Religions  67 

conception  of  his  powers  as  a  subject,  if  not  a 
servant  of  God,  modified  from  the  Magian  behef  in 
Satan  as  a  deity,  was  incorporated  into  their  post- 
exihan  religion  and  brought  back  to  Palestine  on 
the  return  of  the  exiles.  This  we  think  is  clearly- 
shown  by  the  Apocryphal  Books  of  the  Bible, 
and  all  other  subsequent  Jewish  literature,  includ- 
ing books  of  Daniel,  Job,  Esther,  and  Ecclesias- 
tes,  and  by  the  entire  absence  of  the  name  of 
Satan  from  the  ante-exilian  books  of  the  Bible. 
Kings,  Chronicles,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  and  Jonah 
were  also,  imdoubtedly,  post-exilian  books,  com- 
posed or  compiled  from  previous  manuscripts  by 
Ezra  and  Nehemiah.  Hence  several  references 
in  Chronicles  and  Psalms  to  Satan. 

Now,  in  the  later  Zoroastrian  system  the 
contest  between  Ormuzd,  the  infinitely  good  being, 
and  Ahriman,  the  infinitely  evil  one,  each  equal 
to  and  independent  of  the  other,  was,  granting 
the  premises  to  be  true,  philosophically  logical. 
But  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian  economies,  our 
God  being  an  all  holy  and  omnipotent  Being,  and 
Satan  the  creature,  and  dependent  for  his  existence 
and  power  upon  God's  will,  the  endless  contest 
for  the  souls  of  men  and  for  the  supremacy  of 
good  over  evil,  which  we  are  taught  in  the  ortho- 
dox creed  is  ever  going  on  between  God  and 
Satan,  must  be  a  chimera,  a  gross  absurdity, 
according  to  the  premises,  and  entirely  illogical 
in  the  forum  of  reason.    Assuming  the  orthodox 


68  Evolution  of  Religions 

premises  to  be  correct,  there  can  be  no  antagonism 
between  God  and  Satan,  no  .evil  done,  or  power 
for  evil  on  the  part  of  Satan,  excepting  such  as 
God  permits,  and  if  He  permits.  He  wills.  If 
Satan  exists  and  is  subject  to  God's  power  and 
will,  his  work,  evil  as  it  is,  must  be  permissive  of 
God.  There  needs  no  argument  to  prove  this 
proposition;  there  can  be  no  other  conclusion 
from  the  premises.  No  amotint  of  orthodox 
casuistry  or  sophistry  can  evade  or  overthrow 
the  conclusion.  And  hence  not  being  able  to 
evade  the  conclusion,  I  am  necessarily  compelled, 
as  a  believer  in  God's  infinite  goodness,  to  reject 
the  premises,  i.e.,  the  existence  and  work  of 
Satan  as  untrue.  As  supposed  facts,  they  are 
absolutely  contrary  to  every  one  of  God's  univer- 
sally admitted  attributes.  Hence,  it  logically 
follows  that  no  such  being  as  Satan,  portrayed  as 
he  is  in  orthodoxy  and  the  Book  of  Revelation, 
exists,  or  can  exist,  in  God's  creation.  He  is 
solely  a  myth.  The  doctrine,  if  it  were  true, 
either  dethrones  God  or  makes  Him  a  particeps 
in  evil.  Neither  proposition  is  true,  both  are 
false.  Hereafter  this  subject  will  be  more 
fully  discussed  in  considering  Eden  and  Jesus' 
temptation. 

In  Buddha's  religion,  there  was  no  evil  deity 
possessing  quasi  almighty  powers,  but  in  many 
other  respects,  excepting  the  Buddhist  doctrine 
of  reincarnation,  or  the  transmigration  of  souls. 


Modern  Religions  69 

which  disfigures  that  religion,  it  was  similar  to 
Zoroaster's.  In  many  respects  those  teachers 
Were  ahke.  Both  were  princes  of  royal  blood. 
Buddha  was  heir  to  a  throne.  Zoroaster  is  said 
to  have  been  a  king.  Both  became  prophets  of 
God  and  apostles  of  humanity.  Both  devoted 
their  lives  to  the  service  of  God  and  the  welfare 
of  their  fellow-men  as  nobly  and  imselfishly  as 
any  of  the  Hebrew  or  Christian  prophets  and 
apostles,  ay,  as  ever  Jesus  did,  and  doubtless 
all  three  were  inspired  by  the  same  God  and 
grandly  did  the  work  assigned  to  them  in  the 
divine  education  of  the  human  race.  In  partial 
illustration  of  the  teachings  of  Zoroaster  we  will 
quote  here  the  Zarthosi,  or  Parsee  Creed,  which 
has  been  transmitted  down  from  Zoroaster's  day, 
as  the  Parsees  claim,  and  is  doubtless  the  oldest 
religious  creed  existing.  We  quote  here  from 
Max  Miiller.*  Muller  died  in  October,  1900.  His 
death  was  a  sad  loss  to  the  world.  He  was  a 
great  and  good  man,  broad-minded,  liberal,  and 
the  grandest  philosopher  and  scholar  of  the 
century,  universally  kno^vn,  loved,  and  honored. 
Here  is  Zoroaster's  creed: 

First.  We  believe  in  only  one  God,  and  do  not 
believe  in  any  other  God  but  Him. 

Second.  He  is  the  God  who  created  the  heavens 
and  the  earth,  the  stars  and  the  moon,  the  sun,  the 

»  "Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  by  Max  Muller.  Edi- 
tion of  1877,  pp.  169-174  inclusive. 


70  Evolution  of  Religions 

angels,  the  fire,  the  water,  and  all  things  of  the  two 
worlds,  and  all  the  four  elements.  That  God  we 
believe  in.  Him  we  worship.  Him  we  invoke.  Him 
only  we  adore. 

Third.  Whoever  believes  in  any  other  God  than 
this  is  an  infidel  and  shall  suffer  the  punishment  of 
hell. 

Fourth.  Our  God  has  neither  face  nor  form,  color 
nor  shape  nor  fixed  abode.  There  is  none  other 
like  Him.  He  is  himself  singly  such  a  glory  that  we 
cannot  properly  praise  or  describe  Him,  nor  our 
minds  comprehend  Him. 

Fifth.  Our  religion  is  the  worship  of  God.  We  re- 
ceived it  from  God's  true  Prophet.  The  true  Prophet, 
Zoroaster,  brought  the  religion  to  us  from  God, 

Sixth.  God  has  sent  these  commands  through  His 
Prophet  the  exalted  Zorthorst,  viz. :  To  know  God 
only  as  one,  to  know  the  Prophet,  the  exalted  Zor- 
thorst, as  the  true  Prophet,  to  believe  the  religion 
and  the  Avesta,  i.e.,  "living  words"  brought  by 
him,  as  true  beyond  all  manner  of  doubt,  to  believe 
in  the  goodness  of  God,  not  to  disobey  any  of  the 
commands  of  the  Maz-di-ashma  religion,  to  avoid 
all  evil  deeds,  to  exert  ourselves  constantly  in  doing 
good,  to  pray  five  times  a  day  to  God,  to  hope  for 
Heaven,  and  to  fear  hell,  to  consider  certain  the  day 
of  general  destruction  and  resurrection,  to  believe  in 
the  reckonings  and  judgment  on  the  fourth  day  after 
death,  to  remember  always  that  God  has  done  what 
He  wills,  and  shall  always  do  what  He  wills,  and  to 
always  face  the  sun  or  some  luminous  object  while 
worshiping  God  as  an  emblem  of  His  light  and 
wisdom. 


Modern  Religions  71 

Seventh.  If  any  one  commits  sin  under  the  belief 
that  he  shall  be  somebody  else,  or  that  somebody 
else  will  atone  for  him,  both  the  deceiver  and  the 
deceived  shall  be  damned  to  the  day  of  Rata  Khez. 
There  is  no  savior.  In  the  other  world  you  shall 
receive  the  retui:n  according  to  your  actions.  Your 
savior  is  your  deeds  and  God  himself.  He  is  alone 
the  pardoner  and  the  giver.  If  you  repent  of  your 
sins  and  reform,  and  if  the  great  Judge  considers 
you  worthy  of  pardon,  or  would  be  merciful,  He  alone 
can  and  will  save  you.* 

So  teach  the  Parsees  or  modem  Zoroastrians  of 
India,  and  they  claim  that  this  creed  has  come 
down  grand  and  sublime,  as  most  of  it  is,  from 
their  great  prophet  of  forty  centuries  ago,  almost 
in  the  world's  morning,  and  which  doubtless  had 
the  sanction  of  Noah,  Shem,  and  Abraham.  Is 
it  not  a  beautiful  faith,  safe  to  live  and  die  by, 
and  a  fitting  companion  to  the  Decalogue  of 
Moses  and  the  sermons  of  Jesus,  though  many 
centuries  older  than  both?  By  substituting  the 
name  of  Jesus  for  Zoroaster  would  not  his  ethics 
be  nearly  identical  with  the  Savior's?  Wherein 
do  Moses  and  the  prophets  and  the  Nazarene 
excel  Zoroaster,  excepting  in  the  Christ's  messages, 
as  properly  xmderstood,  of  universal  love  and 
universal  salvation?  Zoroaster's  was  a  pure 
and  simple  faith.  He  worshiped  the  same  God, 
and  for  many  centuries  his  religion  had  a  wider 

•  Appendix,  Note  E,  pp.  216,  217,  218. 


7?  Evolution  of  Religions 

sway  than  either  of  the  others.  Each  was  a 
messenger  to  men  of  the  same  God.  There  was 
this  difference  between  the  followers  of  Zoroaster 
and  of  Moses,  and  it  was  greatly  to  the  glory  of 
the  former.  The  Zoroastrians  were,  as  history 
and  traditions  inform  us,  always  faithful  to  their 
religion  and  never  worshiped  any  other  god, 
nor  any  forms  of  deity  or  idols,  while  the  Isra- 
elites, notwithstanding  their  alleged  theocratic 
government  and  closer  and  miraculous  com- 
munion with  God,  and  the  traditions  of  the 
wonderful  miracles  of  which,  we  are  told,  they 
and  their  ancestors  were  the  witnesses  and  bene- 
ficiaries, relapsed  very  often  through  utter  for- 
getfulness  of  Jehovah  and  their  sacrificial  worship, 
and  covenant  obligations  with  Him,  into  long 
periods  of  brutal  idolatry  and  debased  paganism. 
Nor  did  the  Zoroastrians  ever  observe  or  perform 
any  degrading  sacrificial  rites.  These  be  unpala- 
table truths  probably  to  Jews  and  Christians  and 
such  as,  we  fear,  many  of  them  do  not  often  con- 
sider, but  nevertheless  they  are  truths,  con- 
firmed by  history,  ancient  and  modem,  and 
above  all,  as  to  the  Hebrews,  by  their  own  sacred 
books.  For  the  most  part,  the  books  of  Judges, 
Samuel,  Kings,  and  Chronicles,  and  of  all  the 
prophets,  are  records  of  the  gross  wickedness  and 
idolatries  of  the  "Chosen  People,"  and  of  their 
forgetfulness  of  and  rebellion  against  God. 

We  propose  only  to  deal  with  and  assert  truths 


Modern  Religions  73 

in  these  pages,  so  far  as  we  know  them  or  can 
gather  them  up,  utterly  regardless  of  stereotyped 
beliefs  and  dogmas,  the  cavils  of  sectarianism 
and  religious  bigotry  or  partisan  histories. 
Doubtless  the  fourth  commandment  of  the  Zo- 
roastrian  creed  was  especially  framed  to  prohibit 
any  \'isible  representations  of  the  Almighty  or 
any  form  of  manifestations  or  divisions  of  His 
qualities  or  attributes,  even  more  forcibly  than  in 
the  Mosaic  Decalogue,  so  that  there  might  not 
be  any  idolatrous  worship  nor  any  semblance  of 
idolatry  of  any  kind,  no  divisions  of  persons,  nor 
other  mystical  or  mythical  conceptions  of  God. 
Judging  from  the  Parsee  creed,  as  well  as  from 
fragments  of  ancient  Persian  songs  and  other 
fragments  of  still  more  ancient  gathas  or  hymns 
supposed  to  have  been  composed  by  Zoroaster 
himself,^  it  is  extremely  doubtful  whether 
Zoroaster  himself  ever  taught  of  Satan  as  a  deity, 
or  demi-god,  or  of  his  equal  control  of  the  physical 
and  moral  government  of  the  world  with  God, 
as  was  held  in  some  shape  in  after-times  by  the 
priests  and  ]\Iagii  of  Media  and  Babylon.  Doubt- 
less his  teachings  about  Augro-Mainyos,  the  evil 
one,  and  his  powers  were  greatly  exaggerated 
in  subsequent  ages  by  the  Magii,  the  more  strongly 
to  influence  and  control  the  people,  amidst  the 
wealth,  luxury,  and  extravagances  of  the  Persian 
and  Babylonian  empires,  in  order  that  they  might 

*  Rawlinson's  "Ancient  Religions,"  pp.  75,  76,  77. 


74  Evolution  of  Religions 

through  the  superstition  and  fears  of  behevers, 
reap  a  golden  harvest,  and  secular  as  well  as 
religious  domination.  Certainly  the  same  tac- 
tics were  used,  and  with  great  success,  by  the 
ecclesiastics  of  Christendom  during  the  Dark 
Ages  of  Eiirope,  and  as  really  they  have  always 
been  exerted  in  greater  or  less  degree  by  all 
religious  hierarchies. 


CHAPTER  V 

BUDDHISM.       THE  TRINITY,  ETC. 

NEXT  we  come  to  supplement  the  doctrines  of 
Zoroastrianism  with  a  summary  of  the  teach- 
ings of  Sakya-Manu  —  Gaut-ama,  —  or  Buddha 
the  Great  Prophet  of  the  Himalayas,  six  centuries 
before  Christ,  and  compare  them  also  briefly 
with  Judaism  and  Christianity.  Again  we  quote 
from  Max  Muller  because  he  was  imequaled  in 
knowledge,  candor,  and  fearlessness  of  expres- 
sion as  a  historian,  Oriental,  scholar  and  Christian. 
He  says:  "Besides  the  five  great  commandments 
of  Buddha,  viz.,  not  to  kill,  not  to  steal,  not  to 
commit  adultery,  not  to  lie,  not  to  get  dnmk, 
every  shade  of  vice,  hypocrisy,  anger,  pride, 
suspicion,  greediness,  covetousness,  gossiping, 
and  cruelty,  even  to  animals,  is  guarded  against 
by  special  precept.  Among  the  virtues  com- 
manded by  Buddha,  we  find  not  only  reverence 
of  parents,  care  for  children,  submission  to  author- 
ity, gratitude  for  kindness  and  favors,  moderation 
in  time  of  prosperity,  submission  in  time  of  trial, 
equanimity  at  all  times,  but  other  virtues  im- 
known  to  any  heathen  system  of  morality,  such 
as  the  duty  of  forgiving  insults  and  injuries,  and 

75 


76  Evolution  of  Religions 

not  rewarding  evil  with  evil,  but  with  good.  All 
virtues,  we  are  told,  spring  from  Maitri,  and  this 
word  "Maitri"  can  only  be  translated  by  the 
words  "Charity  and  Love."  ^  What  more  or 
better  things  in  morals  did  Moses  and  Jesus 
teach?  Did  Jesus  get  any  of  His  incomparable 
beatitudes  and  his  wonderful  lessons  of  mercy 
and  forgiveness  from  Buddha's  religion?  Doubt- 
less, for  Buddha's  laws  and  precepts  of  mercy 
are  superior  to  many  teachings  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets  of  Israel.  And  why  should  we  say  that 
Jesus  was  inspired  and  sent  of  God  to  teach  the 
world,  but  that  Buddha  was  not,  when  their 
lessons  and  work  were  the  same  ?  Divest  ourselves 
of  the  sectarian  influences  under  which  we  were 
brought  up,  and  of  narrow,  intolerant  bigotry, 
and  we  should  feel  that  both  were  sent  of  God. 
They  had  the  same  Heavenly  Father,  and  were 
animated  by  the  same  mission  of  love  to  man- 
kind. There  is  not  a  grander  record  in  human 
annals.  They  may  be  searched  in  vain,  for  such 
a  sublime  renunciation  of  earthly  power,  wealth, 
and  fame,  of  pomp  and  pleasure,  of  self-sacri- 
ficing devotion  and  lifelong  labor  for  the  amelio- 
ration of  human  suffering  and  promotion  of 
happiness  on  earth  and  in  the  hereafter,  than 
is  found  in  the  life  of  Buddha.  Such  are  the 
leading  tenets  of  his  religion.  Son  of  the  Em- 
peror   Suddhodana    and    heir    to    his    Northern 

*  Muller's  "Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  p.  219. 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.        77 

Hindoostanee  throne,  Buddha  in  his  young  man- 
hood, for  lo've  of  God  and  his  fellow-men,  re- 
nounced home,  power,  and  fame,  and  all  earthly 
pleasures  through  a  long  life,  as  did  Jesus  of  Naz- 
areth in  a  much  shorter  one,  went  about  in  humble 
garb  teaching  and  doing  good,  curing  diseases  and 
alleviating  misery,  dependent  upon  the  people, 
among  whom  he  traveled  and  labored,  for  his 
daily  bread.  He  lived  a  life  of  as  utterly  unself- 
ish devotion  and  self-abnegation  in  his  work  as 
Christ  did.  Verily,  he  was  the  Hindoostanee 
Christ. 

The  narratives  by  his  biographers,  of  the 
theophanic  conception  of  his  mother,  the  Empress 
Mayadeva,  and  of  Buddha's  miraculous  birth, 
are  very  similar  to  those  of  Jesus'  conception  and 
birth  in  the  Gospels,  and  doubtless  both  are 
myths,  as  are  also  the  legends  of  Buddha's  many 
miracles.  Really  differing  only  in  the  fact  that 
Buddha's  parents  were  great,  wealthy,  and 
powerful,  and  Jesus'  obscure  and  poor,  there 
is  a  wonderful  resemblance  in  their  lives  and 
work.  And  that  upon  the  mission  of  both  the 
seal  of  divine  approval  has  been  set,  is  found  in 
the  wonderful  success  of  their  work  of  good,  and 
the  millions,  yes,  hundreds  of  millions,  in  many 
lands  who  have  been  devoted  followers  of  each, 
and  humble  converts  to  their  teachings  in  the 
centuries  past.  As  the  Christian  faith  did,  and 
solely  upon  its  merits,   the  religion  of   Buddha 


7^  Evolution  of  Religions 

rapidly  spread  over  all  India  and  Eastern  Asia, 
Thibet,  China,  and  Japan,  amalgamating  in  China 
to  a  great  extent  with  Confucianism,  in  which 
there  were  no  ethical  or  theological  antagonisms 
or  differences,  but  generally  an  harmonious 
accord,  and  with  all  its  vicissitudes  nearly 
supplanting  idolatrous  Brahmanism  in  Southern 
India,  and  to-day  probably  numbers  more  follow- 
ers than  Judaism  and  Christianity  combined. 

Under  other  conditions  than  those  then  exist- 
ing, Buddhism  would  doubtless  have  spread  over 
Persia  and  Western  Asia  also,  but  meeting  on  the 
northern  confines  of  India  with  the  equally  pure 
and  grand  religion  of  Zoroaster,  though  somewhat 
sterner  in  its  worship  and  forms,  there  was  no 
occasion,  it  would  seem,  in  the  providence  of 
God,  for  its  further  progress  westward,  and 
consequently  it  did  not  extend  in  that  direction 
beyond  the  boundaries  of  Media  and  Persia. 
Comparatively  few  Christians  know  anything 
about  other  religions,  especially  about  Buddhism, 
and  consider  it  merely  as  one  of  the  pagan  systems 
of  old.  Its  holy  books,  the  "Tri  Pitakas,"  or 
Three  Baskets  of  Knowledge  and  of  Wisdom, 
like  the  Zend  Avesta  of  the  Zoroastrians  and  our 
Bible,  have  many  impossible  miracles  and  extrav- 
agant legends,  but  in  their  theology  and  ethics 
pale  but  little  in  the  light  of  Moses  and  the 
prophets  and  are  worthy  coadjutors  of  Christian- 
ity.    Read  the  bible  of  Buddha,  fellow-Christians, 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       79 

if  you  have  the  opportunity;  reject  its  defects 
and  superstitious  legends,  but,  as  St.  Paul  says, 
"Examine  all  things  and  hold  fast  to  that  which 
is  good,"  and  be  manly,  liberal,  and  catholic  in 
your  treatment  of  this  religion,  indeed  of  all 
religions.  We  know  that  much  is  said  about 
the  superior  influences  of  Christianity,  and  fre- 
quent comparisons  are  made  of  the  social  and 
intellectual  conditions  of  the  people  of  coun- 
tries in  which  other  religions  are  dominant,  and 
countries  under  Christian  belief.  It  is,  we  admit, 
true  now,  and  has  been  for  two  or  three  centuries 
the  fact,  that  the  Christian  nations  of  Europe 
and  America  have  been  in  the  van  of  civilization 
and  intellectual  and  social  progress,  and  that 
the  conditions  of  the  masses  of  the  people  have 
been  better  than  the  average  in  Asiatic  countries. 
Of  course  much  of  Africa  has  been  in  intense 
pagan  darkness,  and  with  that  continent  and  the 
Mohammedan  countries  of  Western  and  Central 
Asia,  like  Siberian  Russia,  imder  abject  despotism 
of  government,  and  the  provinces  of  Hindustan 
under  the  curse  of  blighting  and  decaying  Brah- 
manism,  there  can  be  no  comparison  with  Christian 
countries. 

I  admit  the  vast  superiority  of  Christianity, 
Buddhism,  Zoroastrianism,  and  Confucianism,  as 
taught  by  the  ancient  teachers  of  those  religions, 
over  Mohammedanism,  and  that  broad,  liberal, 
and    expansive    Christianity  is    superior    to    all 


8o  Evolution  of  Religions 

other  faiths.  But  much  is  owing  to  racial  traits 
and  vigor.  We  must  concede  that  much  of  the 
advanced  position  in  this  age  of  Christian  nations 
and  Christian  civilization  is  due  to  the  wonder- 
ful growth  and  increasing  power  in  the  last  two 
centuries  of  the  great  germanic  and  Anglo-Saxon 
races,  developing  hberty,  culture,  refinement, 
social  and  moral  progress  and  advanced  ideas  of 
liberal  governments  beyond  anything  hereto- 
fore known.  Such  development  is  mostly  due 
to  learning,  science,  and  the  general  diffusion  of 
knowledge.  The  Church  has  been  generally  hostile 
to  science  and  its  discoveries,  and  only  doggedly 
accepted  its  results  when  compelled  to.  Nearly 
all  the  wonderful  progress  and  development  of 
the  world  and  ameliorations  of  human  conditions 
during  the  past  two  centuries  are  due  to  the 
peoples  of  those  races,  vastly  superior  in  natural 
and  inherited  abilities  to  the  Semitic  and  other 
Asiatic  and  African  races,  as  well  as  to  other 
branches  of  the  great  Aryan  race.  But  com- 
paring European  Christianity  of  the  period  of  its 
mastery  over  the  Roman  Empire,  315  a.d.,  and 
the  twelve  himdred  years  of  the  Dark  Age  of 
Europe,  until  the  Germanic  Reformation,  and 
indeed  until  about  the  year  1700  a.d.,  with  the 
Buddhist  and  Confucianist  countries  of  Northern 
India,  China,  and  Japan,  and  the  ancient  Persian 
Empire  imder  Zoroastrianism,  and  the  balance 
sheets    of    superstition,    clerical    tyranny,    and 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       8i 

corruption,  oppressive  governments,  terrible  wars, 
religious  persecutions,  and  the  general  miserable 
conditions  of  the  people  of  European  countries 
with  those  of  Asia  under  Buddhistic,  Confucian, 
and  even  Moslem  rule,  would  show  very  little, 
if  any,  balance  to  the  credit  side  of  so-called 
Christian  governments  for  all  that  long  period  of 
time,  —  fourteen  hundred  years,  —  during  which 
Christianity  had  complete  control  in  all  Europe. 
And  we  are  not  considering  at  all  in  this  estimate 
the  Zoroastrian  religion,  or  its  influence,  for  the 
number  of  its  adherents,  since  the  conquest  of 
Persia  in  634  a.d.  by  the  Moslems,  has  been  too 
inconsiderable  to  cut  any  important  figure  in  the 
destinies  of  any  Asiatic  countries. 

What  more  terrible  wars  ravaged  Asia  during 
those  fourteen  hundred  years  than  the  European 
wars,  aside  from  the  Mohammedan  conquests? 
Where  were  the  awful  persecutions  of  the  Savoy- 
ards, Albigenses,  and  Waldenses  surpassed,  the 
horrors  of  the  Inquisition,  the  awful  massacre 
by  Christians  of  fellow-Christians  on  Saint  Bar- 
tholomew's eve  in  1572,  and  the  atrocities  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  religious  war  in  Europe  ?  Even  the 
barbarities  of  the  Christian  Crusaders  were  for- 
gotten in  the  humanities  of  the  great  Saracen 
soldier,  Saladin.  With  the  same  races  of  people 
and  imder  the  same  conditions  of  education 
and  general  intelligence,  it  is  at  least  problemat- 
ical whether   the   influences   of    Zoroastrianism, 


82  Evolution  of  Religions 

Buddhism,  and  Confucianism  would  not  have  been 
as  humanizing  and  mercifiil  as  those  of  European 
Christianity  during  the  Dark  and  Middle  Ages,  and 
certainly  better  than  the  example  of  the  Israelites 
as  taught  in  the  Mosaic  history. 

Gradually,  we  believe,  as  seems  to  be  the  trend 
of  social  and  religious  evolutions,  and  consequently 
for  the  general  welfare  of  mankind,  with  the 
progress  of  knowledge  and  civilization,  those 
old  faiths  will  pass  away,  and  all  that  is  good 
and  ennobling  in  them  be  merged  in  a  broader 
Christianity  than  known  to  the  past,  which  will 
eventually  absorb  them  into  the  harmony  of  one 
world-wide  and  universal  religion.  The  great 
quintette  of  prophets,  Zoroaster,  Moses,  Confucius, 
Buddha,  and  Jesus  Christ,  all,  and  the  last  named 
preeminently  so,  were  each  inspired  of  God,  and 
the  lives  and  teachings  of  all  had  the  same  ob- 
jects in  view,  self-renunciation  of  men,  service  for 
God,  and  the  redemption  of  mankind  from  sin 
and  folly,  to  lives  of  goodness,  virtue,  and  useful- 
ness here,  in  the  assured  hope  of  happiness  and 
immortality  hereafter.  If  from  Christianity  is 
eliminated  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  then  there 
could  be  no  reason  why  Christians  and  Jews, 
Zoroastrians,  Confucianists,  and  Buddhists,  yea, 
and  Moslems,  could  not  associate  as  brothers,  and 
all  worship  in  the  same  temples,  notwithstanding 
minor  differences  of  forms  and  rites.  All  these 
acknowledge  the  same  fimdamental  truths,  viz., 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       S^ 

the  universal  fatherhood  and  sovereignty  of  One 
God,  and  behef  in  immortaHty  and  eternal  life. 
But  for  the  dogma  of  the  Trinity,  Jews  and 
Christians  long  ago  would  have  fraternized.  In 
the  early  centuries  most  of  the  Christians  were 
of  the  Jewish  race.  But  after  that  dogma  became 
the  creed  of  the  dominant  Catholic  Church,  and 
all  unitarians  and  dissenters  were  persecuted  and 
martyred,  conversions  from  the  Jews  ceased. 
The  Catholic  Church  tolerated  Jews  who  followed 
Moses  and  the  prophets  and  believed  in  only  one 
God,  but  would  not  tolerate  Christian  disbelief 
in  the  -Trinity.  Hence  the  adamantine  wall  of 
division  existing  between  the  Jews  and  Christians 
to  this  day,  but  we  believe  in  time,  Hke  all  error, 
it  will  tumble  down  of  itself  as  did  the  fabled 
walls  of  Jericho. 

The  Trinity  is  not  taught  in  the  Bible  anywhere. 
The  texts  in  the  New  Testament  that  are  tor- 
tured in  that  direction  are  mainly  perv^ersions  or 
interpolations  of  the  original.  Most  of  the  Jews 
now  believe  in  the  divine  mission  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  with  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  eliminated 
from  Christianity  there  would  be  no  serious 
differences  with  modem  Judaism,  and  the  teach- 
ings of  Moses  and  the  prophets,  of  Jesus  and  His 
Apostles,  would  compose  one  sacred  book  for  Jew 
and  Gentile,  harmonizing  with  all  other  faiths, 
excepting  in  non-essentials,  which  will  ultimately, 
we  believe,  and  in  the  not  very  remote  future, 


84  Evolution  of  Religions 

be  the  divine  evolution  of  all  religions.  Says 
Count  Leo  Tolstoi,  the  great  Russian  writer: 
"Yes!  it  is  true,  I  deny  an  incomprehensible 
Trinity,  and  the  fable  regarding  the  fall  of  man, 
which  is  absurd  in  our  day.  It  is  true  I  deny 
the  sacrilegious  story  of  a  God  bom  of  a  virgin 
to  redeem  the  human  race.  But  God  Spirit,  God 
Love,  God  the  sole  principle  of  all  things,  in  Him 
I  believe,  and  in  eternal  life." 

And  believing  in  one  God,  the  All  Holy  and 
Wise  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  Universe,  from 
whom  all  things  are,  and  contrary  to  whose  su- 
preme will  nothing  can  be  or  happen,  we  must,  it 
follows,  believe  that  all  religions  which  ever  have 
existed,  fulfilled  some  purposes  in  His  economy, 
and  were  adapted  to  the  moral  and  intellectual 
conditions  of  the  people  and  to  the  ages  in  which 
they  flourished.  While  some  were  good  and  grand 
morally,  and  some  very  inferior,  comparatively, 
in  intellectual  and  moral  standards,  as  we  measure 
at  this  day,  yet  they  all  must  have  fulfilled  the 
divine  purposes  in  the  education  and  training 
of  the  human  race,  in  the  infinite  school,  the 
lowest  forms  of  religion  being  better  than  none 
at  all,  doing  some  good  and  teaching  the  peoples 
some  truths  which  otherwise  they  had  not  learned, 
and  restraining  them  from  many  vices.  While 
even  the  highest  and  best  religions,  though  very 
good,  and  proclaimed  by  inspired  men,  had  in 
their  systems  human  imperfections,  the  Almighty 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       85 

teaching  through  the  ministry  of  imperfect,  falHble, 
finite  men,  only  what  their  followers  at  the  time 
could  comprehend  and  assimilate  into  their  lives 
and  requiring  only  such  measure  of  service  as 
they  were  capable  of  giving  according  to  the 
material,  social,  intellectual,  and  religious  environ- 
ments of  the  times. 

St.  Paul  says :  "  And  the  times  of  this  ignorance, 
God  winked  at,  but  now  commandeth  all  men 
everywhere  to  repent."  *  Upon  these  conditions 
certainly  the  character  and  purposes  of  the 
revelation  depended,  and  not  upon  heavenly 
partiality  and  selection  of  a  particular  and  favored 
people  per  se  to  be  the  recipients  of  the  divine 
light,  as  the  Hebrew  writers  taught.  God  never 
hated  one  nation  and  loved  another  because  of 
race  or  ancestry.  He  is  now,  and  ever  was,  the 
imiversal  Father.  We  are  all,  says  St.  Paul,  the 
"offspring of  God,"  and  Jew  and  Gentile  arealike 
to  Him,  in  every  land.  His  children  and  the 
common  objects  of  His  love  and  care.  Any 
contrary  belief  is  illiberal  and  untrue,  and  comes 
simply  from  race  and  national  prejudices,  igno- 
rance, and  religious  bigotry.  In  accordance  with 
these  ideas  of  God  are  the  opinions  of  the  brightest 
and  broadest  thinkers  of  the  age.  I  cite  Max 
Muller  and  Rev.  Charles  D.  Briggs,  who  both 
fearlessly  assert  that  inspiration  from  God  was 
not  limited    to  Hebrew  prophets  and  Christian 

*  St.  Paul,  Acts  xvii,  30. 


86  Evolution  of  Religions 

apostles,  but  that  the  founders  of  the  other 
great  and  pure  monotheistic  religions  of  the  world, 
and  even  the  great  sages  of  Greek  and  Roman 
literature,  were  alike  gifted  in  greater  or  less 
degree  with  inspiration  from  God/  No  doubt 
Herodotus,  Xenophon,  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle, 
Seneca,  and  Antoninus  Pius  wrote  much  of  their 
grand  teachings  under  divine  light.  No  doubt 
great  and  good  men  of  every  age  and  all  countries 
have  been  inspired  to  teach  the  truth,  as  they 
were  able  to  comprehend  it,  and  not  only  in 
religion  but  in  other  departments  of  knowledge. 
Miiller  says,  "  It  shows  a  want  of  faith  in  God  and 
His  inscrutable  wisdom  in  the  government  of 
the  world  if  we  ought  to  condemn  all  ancient 
forms  of  faith,  excepting  the  religion  of  the  Jews." 
Even  St.  Augustine,  bigoted  and  narrow-minded 
as  he  usually  was,  says,  "There  is  no  religion 
which  among  its  many  errors  does  not  contain 
some  real  divine  truths."  This  was  written  by 
him  about  the  year  400  a.d.  in  the  memory  of 
the  late  abominations  of  Egyptian  and  Roman 
idolatries.  ]\Iuch  in  those  ancient  bibles  of 
Zoroastrians,  Brahmans,  Buddhists,  Confucianists, 
and  Mohammedans,  as  well  as  of  Jews  and 
Christians,  is  catholic  and  true  in  history  and 
ethics.     In   all  of   them  excepting    Brahmanism 

*  Miiller's  "Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  p.  54. 
Briggs,  "The  Stud3'-of  the  Bible, "pp.  167-537.  Briggs,  "The 
Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  pp.  71,  72,  73. 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       87 

the  theology  is  virtually  the  same.  Some  of  the 
teachings  and  stories  in  each,  excepting  the 
Confucian  analects,  which  are  not  primarily 
religious  writings,  are  allegorical  or  metaphorical, 
legendary,  and  mythical.  Perfection  does  not 
seem  to  attach  to,  or  can  be  predicated  of,  any  of 
the  works  of  men,  even  though  they  be,  in  their 
elements,  inspired  from  heaven. 

As  to  the  supernatural  stories  in  the  sacred 
books  of  any  religion,  all  of  them  have  more  or 
less  such,  excepting  the  Confucian,  which  is 
purely  ethical.  We  desire  only  to  say  that  God 
is  the  same  infinite  and  all  wise  being  now  as  ever, 
and  though  we  cannot  fathom  all  His  ways,  He 
enjoins  us  frequently  in  the  Bible  to  consider  and 
judge  of  all  its  teachings  and  precepts.  He  says 
to  His  people,  "Come  and  let  us  reason  together," 
and  "  Why  judge  ye  not  yourselves  what  is  right  ?  " 
There  seems  no  himian  reason,  and  we  doubt  if 
any  can  be  satisfactorily  given,  why,  if  ever  God 
permitted  men  to  perform  miracles,  He  should 
not  give  them  such  power  now.  Humanly  speak- 
ing, there  seems  to  be  very  many  reasons  why 
now,  in  the  present  condition  of  the  world,  in  the 
present  confusion  of  creeds  and  dogmas,  the 
conflicts  and  doubts  of  religious  belief,  in  which 
so  many  of  the  greatest  minds  of  our  day  are 
involved  and  blundering  in  darkness  and  doubt, 
and  yet  all  the  world  seeking  the  ultimate  truth 
perhaps   more   earnestly   than  ever  before,   and 


88  Evolution  of  Religions 

considering  the  billion  and  a  half  of  human  beings 
now  inhabiting  the  earth  as  compared  with  the 
vastly  smaller  population  of  ancient  times,  the 
Almighty  would  in  this  age  be  much  more  likely 
to  reveal  Himself  through  miracles  and  theo- 
phanies  than  ever  before.  Moreover,  there  seems 
to  be  no  reason  why  one  age  or  people  should 
receive  almost  the  entire  attention  and  favor  of 
the  Almighty,  as  claimed  for  Israel,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  all  other  ages  or  peoples.  That  He  should, 
as  claimed  by  the  Hebrew  chronicles,  in  what 
seems  their  extreme  amor  patrics  and  selfish 
tribal  clannishness,  select  four  thousand  years  ago 
one  family  of  semi-barbarians,  afterwards  divided 
into  petty  tribes,  to  whom  through  unnatural 
portents  and  wonderful  miracles  to  exclusively 
reveal  Himself  and  leave  all  the  rest  of  mankind 
for  many  hundreds  of  years  in  entire  ignorance 
of  Himself,  His  will,  and  moral  laws  and  of  the 
truth  of  a  future  life,  which  latter  truth  is  not 
even  taught  to  His  chosen  people  at  that  time, 
is  in  the  form  of  reason  simply  preposterous. 

It  is  certainly  astonishing  that  while  perform- 
ing such  prodigies  as  we  are  told  He  did  for  the 
exclusive  benefit  of  the  children  of  Israel,  and 
communicating  to  them  a  great  code  of  civil, 
criminal,  and  moral  laws  and  knowledge  of 
Himself,  He  should,  even  to  those  highly  favored 
people,  as  above  intimated,  give  no  information 
about  a  future  life,  or  even  an  explicit  declaration 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       89 

that  there  was  such  a  life.  This  is  an  inexplicable 
mystery  if  all  the  other  facts  are  literally  true. 
In  Zoroaster's  religion  a  future  Hfe  is  fully  and 
clearly  revealed.  Despite  allegations  of  our  Bible 
commentators  to  the  contrary,  there  is  nothing 
of  future  life  taught  in  the  Torah  and  other 
Hebrew  historic  books,  and  only  vaguely,  if  at 
all,  in  the  prophetic  books.  After  contact  with 
the  Persian  and  Babylonian  religions,  which 
taught  it,  there  are  first  found  in  the  post-exilian 
books,  such  as  Daniel,  Job,  Proverbs,  Psalms, 
part  of  Isaiah,  Ezekiel,  and  some  of  the  later 
prophets,  some  ambiguous  references  to  a  future 
Hfe.  It  was,  however,  only  when  first  clearly 
proclaimed  by  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Jews,  that  God 
made  such  revelations  of  His  will,  as  taught  in  the 
Christian  bible.  That  He  communicated  such 
revelations  to  teachers  of  other  religions  we  as 
firmly  believe.  Zoroaster  was  a  more  ancient 
and  greater  prophet  than  Moses,  and  he  was 
greatly  in  advance  of  him  in  teaching  the  doctrine 
of  immortality,  if  Moses  wrote  the  Pentateuch. 
These  be  truths  which  cannot  be  gainsaid,  though 
ignorance  and  bigotry  may  denounce  them. 

As  to  supernatural  occurrences  narrated  in 
any  bibles,  ancient  or  modem,  we  are  inclined 
to  disbelieve  them.  None  are  proven  according 
to  any  legal  or  recognized  rules  of  evidence. 
Those  who  are  determined  to  believe  them  not- 
withstanding, without  any  evidence,  or  with  such 


9©  Evolution  of  Religions 

evidence  only  as  to  satisfy  themselves,  have  the 
right  so  to  believe,  but  certainly  those  who 
require  proof  sufficient  to  convince  their  reason 
and  judgment  have  an  equal  right  to  disbelieve. 
If  miracles  in  our  Bible  are  not  facts,  but  poetic 
myths,  legends,  and  fables,  then  we  may  reasonably 
assume  from  what  is  known  of  other  religions 
that  stories  of  miracles  in  all  sacred  books  are 
unreliable.  Many  of  them  doubtless,  as  ex- 
traordinary phenomena,  may  be  explained  or 
accounted  for  upon  psychological,  mesmeric, 
magnetic,  philosophical,  electric,  or  other  natural 
principles,  with  the  incidents  wonderfully  colored 
and  exaggerated  by  the  enchantments  of  time, 
human  ingenuity,  and  credulity.  The  miracles  of 
Zoroastrianism,  Buddhism,  and  Islamism  are  as 
firmly  believed  by  the  adherents  of  those  religions 
as  Jews  and  Christians  believe  in  theirs,  and  many 
of  them  are  as  reasonable.  But  none  of  their 
sacred  books,  nor  can  ours,  maintain  and  prove 
the  claims  for  each,  asserted  by  their  devout  and 
unquestioning  believers,  that  they  are  in  all 
things  divinely  inspired  and  inerrant.  The  holy 
books  of  all  religions,  excepting  the  Confucian, 
are  full  of  extravagant  legends  and  myths.  So 
in  ours  there  are  some  contradictory  stories,  even 
some  ethical  propositions  differing  on  the  same 
subjects,  some  historical  statements  entirely  im- 
probable, some  miracles,  per  se,  absurd. 

Nearly  all  the  books  of  the  Hebrew  Bible  and 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       91 

some  of  those  of  the  New  Testament  are  now 
clearly  ascertained  to  have  been  written  or  finally 
compiled  by  anonymous  or  pseudonymous 
authors.  Nor  are  the  rehgions  of  the  Old  and 
New  Testaments  exactly  siii  generis.  They  do 
not  always  teach  the  same  doctrines  as  claimed 
by  Christians  but  denied  by  the  Jews.  By 
Christians  generally  both  scriptures  are  con- 
sidered virtually  as  one  revelation,  having  the 
same  credentials  and  teaching  the  same  ideals 
of  God.  And  really  considered  as  merely  a 
developm?nt  of  His  wonderful  economy  in  the 
education  of  mankind,  Christianity  is  merely  the 
evolution  of  Judaism,  from  a  primarily  earthly 
cult  into  a  divine  religion.  The  Jew  does  not 
believe  in  Christ,  excepting  as  many  of  them  now 
do  believe  in  Him  as  a  prophet.  And  while 
believing  the  historical  and  ethical  teachings  of 
his  Bible,  the  Jew  long  ago  abandoned  the  cere- 
monial and  sacrificial  worship  of  his  fathers,  as 
well  as  many  of  their  ancient  laws  and  usages,  as 
obsolete  relics  of  a  semi-barbarous  age,  and  even 
of  doubtful  divine  sanction  when  originally 
promulgated.  Christians  generally,  however,  of 
the  orthodox  sects,  believe  in  all  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  as  divinely  given,  as  preparatory  to, 
and  really  the  prologue  of,  the  dispensation 
ushered  in  by  Christ.  They  make  symbols,  types, 
and  prophecies  of  the  future  Savior  and  His 
mission  and  sacrifice  of  atonement,  out  of  all  the 


92  Evolution  of  Religions 

miracles,  songs,  poetic  ecstasies,  and  dreams  of 
the  prophets  and  bloody  sacrifices  of  the  Hebrew 
worship,  which  the  Jews  do  not  and  never  did  do, 
properly  deeming  such  use  and  investiture  as 
unwarranted. 

And  Jewish  and  Christian  conceptions  of  God 
are  very  dissimilar.  If  the  orthodox  theory, 
that  the  New  Testament  teaches  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity,  is  correct,  then  it  differs  most  radi- 
cally from  the  Old  Testament.  The  God  of  the 
Hebrews  is,  as  the  God  of  the  Zoroastrians,  Con- 
fucians, Buddhists,  and  Moslems,  absolute  unity, 
one  God  only,  in  all  His  nature,  attributes,  and 
powers,  and  their  scriptures  cannot  be  even 
remotely  perverted  to  teach  of  a  trinity.  So, 
if  orthodoxy  is  correct,  the  religions  of  the  two 
dispensations  differ  vitally.  Hence  taught  and 
believing  so,  why  should  not  the  Jew  cling  with 
imdying  tenacity  to  his  father's  faith  and  his 
father's  God?  It  is  the  only  true  creed  of  Deity. 
When  the  ecclesiastics  of  the  fourth  century 
A.D.,  under  monastic  and  semi-pagan  influences, 
adopted  the  Athanasian  Creed,  partly  conforming 
in  so  doing  to  the  ancient  Egyptian  mysteries  of 
Osiris,  Isis,  and  Horus,  and  the  Hindoo  trinity 
of  Brahma,  Vishnu,  and  Shivah,  many  of  the 
Arabic  Christians  refused  to  follow  the  Western 
Church  into  the  adoption  of  such  creed.  Moham- 
med's teaching  —  mainly  a  recasting  and  ming- 
ling of  old  Hebraism  with  Christianity,  a  sort  of 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       93 

amalgam  —  was  really  a  revolt  against  the 
idolatrous  and  heathenish  tendencies  of  the  late 
alliance  of  pagan  Romanism  with  a  corrupt 
Christian  Church. 

Mohammed  maintained  rigidly  the  monotheis- 
tic worship  of  Deity,  and  an  abhorrence  of  semi- 
idolatrous  emblems  of  the  Savior,  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  of  saints,  which  had  been  introduced 
into  all  the  churches.  To  Mohammed  and  his 
IshmaeHte  followers,  the  trinity  of  God,  symbol- 
ized in  the  religion  of  their  neighbors,  the 
ancient  Egyptians,  by  the  Osirian  legend,  and  of 
the  Hindoos  by  the  three  mystic  heads  of  the 
God  Brahma  on  one  body,  was  an  idolatrous 
myth,  a  gross  perversion  of  their  early  Christianity 
as  well  as  a  departure  from  the  ancient  faith  of 
their  great  ancestor,  Abraham.  The  jargon  of 
the  Christian  ecclesiastics  of  that  day  as  to  the 
relations  of  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost, 
in  the  distinctions  and  sophistries  of  Hetero- 
ousian,  Homoi-ousian,  and  Homo-ousian,  the 
Moslem  proselytes  disdained  to  listen  to,  and 
followed  the  Prophet's  banner. 

The  God  of  the  Hebrews  as  of  the  Moslems 
was  and  is  only  one.  Nowhere  in  the  Old 
Testament  we  assert,  even  imder  the  orthodox 
bias  of  the  King  James  and  other  versions,  with 
the  rendering  of  texts  and  modem  headings  of 
chapters  frequently  distorted  for  this  purpose,  is 
the  doctrine  of  the  trinity  of  God  either  expressly 


94  Evolution  of  Religions 

or  impliedly  taught.  The  assertion  of  George 
Rawlinson,  "that  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  as 
has  been  frequently  shown,  underiies  the  most 
ancient  portions  of  the  Pentateuch,  and  is  most 
reasonably  regarded  as  involved  in  that  primitive 
revelation  which  God  vouchsafed  to  our  first 
parents  in  paradise,  "  Ms  a  baseless  assumption  and 
as  unreal  and  fragile  as  the  Edenic  fable  which 
he  sponsors,  but  baseless  even  if  that  story  were  a 
fact,  for  there  is  not  the  remote  suggestion  of  the 
trinity  in  it.  Indeed,  many  of  the  arguments, 
unfoimded  assumptions  and  conclusions  of  Raw- 
linson in  another  work,  his  "Historical  Evidences 
of  Christianity,"  show  him  to  be  an  imreliable 
historian  and  a  thoroughly  unsound  and  sophisti- 
cal reasoner.  We  will  consider  the  "Primitive 
Revelation  in  Paradise"  more  fully  hereafter. 

The  Bible,  we  repeat,  does  not  teach  a  trinity. 
The  God  of  orthodox  Christianity  is  one  none  can 
comprehend,  a  mystic  triune  Being,  a  fantasy 
developed  by  priestly  fanaticism  and  ingenuity, 
out  of  certain  obscure  translations  of  some 
passages,  and  interpolations  of  others,  in  the 
Gospels  and  Epistles.  The  dogma  has  in  the 
past  largely  fettered  the  minds  of  devotees  of 
the  Church  and  made  them  easily  subject  to 
ecclesiastical  control.  The  dogma  literally  is 
"three  persons  in  one  God,  equal  in  essence  and 
power,   the   three   of    the   same  numerical   sub- 

»  Rawlinson's  "Ancient  Egypt,"  p.  15a. 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       95 

stance,  but  yet  three  equal  hypostases  or  persons, 
distinct  but  not  separate."  *  Such  is  the  Athana- 
sian  definition.  This  creed,  the  deification  of 
Jesus  Christ,  His  atonement  for  the  sins  of  all 
men,  —  though  but  few  are  saved  according  to 
orthodoxy,  —  by  His  death  on  the  cross  as  a  vica- 
rious sacrifice,  and  the  eternal  pimishment  of  all 
who  die  unbelieving  in  such  creed,  is  a  mere 
ecclesiastical  dogma,  xmauthorized  by  any  scrip- 
ture old  or  new.  The  Jews  do  not  beHeve  it,  nor, 
as  they  translate  the  Bible,  does  it  give  any 
support  to  such  dogma.  If  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures teach  it,  then  they  are  totally  at  variance 
with  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  But  Jesus  expli- 
citly teaches  the  contrary.  He  said:  "I  can  of 
mine  own  self  do  nothing.  I  came  not  to  do 
mine  own  will,  but  the  will  of  my  Father,  who  hath 
sent  me  into  the  world."  ^  "  My  Father  is  greater 
than  I."  ^  "Of  that  day  and  hour  knoweth  no 
man,  no,  not  the  angels  in  heaven,  nor  the  son, 
but  the  Father  only."  *  "Why  callest  thou  me 
good?  There  is  none  good  save  one,  that  is  God."  ^ 
These  and  many  other  similar  sayings  of 
Jesus  scattered  through  the  Gospels  are  so  plain 
and   comprehensive   and   teach   so   clearly   that 

»  Archbishop  Whately,  "The  Trinity." 
'  Book  of  John,  v,  30. 
'  Book  of  John,  xiv,  28. 

*  Book  of  Mark,  xiii,  32. 

*  Book  of  Matthew,  xix,  17,  and  Book  of  Luke,  xviii,  19. 


96  Evolution  of  Religions 

whatever  the  mysterious  relation  of  sonship  or 
His  divine  mission  may  have  been,  Jesus  was  not 
in  any  sense  whatever  God,  the  Elohim  or  Yahveh 
of  the  Bible,  that  it  seems,  as  is  said  in  scripture, 
"Even  the  wayfaring  man,  though  a  fool,  need 
not  err  therein."  "Hear,  O  Israel,  the  Lord 
thy  God  is  one  God,"  ^  says  Moses.  Those  texts 
we  have  cited  are  such  humble,  clear,  and  explicit 
declarations  of  Jesus  as  to  His  relations  to  His 
Father,  that  they  should  be  imderstood  literally, 
and  no  supernatural,  mystical,  or  sublimated 
interpretation  of  them  is  authorized.  He  never 
once  in  His  ministry  gave  any  countenance  to  the 
orthodox  assumption  that  in  those  and  other 
similar  utterances.  He  was  speaking  as  a  man  only 
and  at  other  times  as  God.  Nor  did  He  ever  sup- 
port or  countenance  in  any  act  or  discourse  the 
orthodox  delusion  that  His  death  was  to  be  a 
sacrifice  through  which  expiation  was  to  be  made 
to  God,  or,  if  He  was  one  of  the  persons  of  the 
trinity,  to  himself,  for  the  sins  of  all  the  world; 
such  atonement  only  to  be  applicable,  however, 
according  to  the  jugglery  of  the  Westminster  con- 
fession of  faith,  to  the  predestined  elect. 

On  the  contrary,  Jesus  absolutely  negatived  and 
repudiated  such  doctrine,  if  anywhere  taught  by 
allegorical  or  mysterious  expressions  of  the  evan- 
gelists, in  His  peerless  prayer  to  His  Father  and 
His  subsequent  declaration  enforcing  forgiveness 

*  Deuteronomy,  vi,  4. 


Buddhism.     The  Trinity,  etc.       97 

of  sins,  "For  if  ye  forgive  not  men  their  sins, 
neither  w'ill  your  Heavenly  Father  forgive  your 
sins,"  thus  putting  divine  pardon  on  absolutely 
the  same  ground  as  human  forgiveness  of  in- 
juries. Thus  effectually  does  Jesus  dispose  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  atonement,  without  any 
argument,  and  no  amount  of  creeds  or  sophistry 
can  vitalize  the  dogma.  Absolutely,  "  Repent 
and  ye  shall  be  forgiven,  as  ye  forgive  others." 
No  mediator  or  atonement  is  required,  none 
intimated. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CONSIDERATION  OF  MIRACLES 

"TT  is  the  distinction  of  the  Bible  to  be  the 
1  sacred  volume  of  two  great  religions,  the  Jewish 
and  the  Christian.  But  while  the  whole,  includ- 
ing the  Apocrypha,  is  sacred  to  the  Romanist, 
only  the  Old  Testament  and  New  are  sacred  to 
the  Protestant,  only  the  Old  is  sacred  to  the  Jew, 
One  could  almost  say  that  the  Bible  is  the  sacred 
volume  of  three  great  religions,  so  largely  is  the 
Koran  based  upon  the  Bible,  or  rather  upon  the 
Talmud  in  the  first  remove  and  on  the  Bible  in 
the  second."  "The  Bible  is  a  great  book,  and  it 
has  had  a  famous  history.  The  science  of  com- 
parative religion  teaches  nothing  more  decisively 
than  that  the  Bible  has  an  immense  superiority 
over  all  the  other  sacred  scriptures  of  the  world. 
These  may  have  isolated  sentences  of  equal  of  or 
greater  spiritual  significance,  but  they  have  no 
such  average  beauty  and  significance.  Surely 
such  a  book,  with  such  a  history  as  it  has,  and 
such  a  fame  and  such  intrinsic  value,  merits  the 
carefulest  consideration."  * 

'  Rev.  John  W.  Chadwick,  "The  Bible  of  To-day,"  pp. 
I  and  2. 

98 


Consideration  of  Miracles  99 

Such  consideration  should  be  given  to  every- 
thing in  its  pages,  history,  prophecies,  ethics, 
and  miracles.  We  have  considered  somewhat  its 
history.  Its  ethics  are  true.  Its  prophetic  books 
are  grand.  As  to  its  miracles,  does  it  necessarily 
follow  that  because  God  may  have  revealed  Him- 
self by  inspiration  to  good  men  at  various  periods, 
as  taught  in  this  book,  that  the  stories  of  angelic 
visions  and  supernatural  manifestations  inter- 
spersed through  it  are  literally  true  and  not 
merely  legends?  Many  of  the  divine  messages 
to  the  people  of  Israel  were  not  accompanied  by 
any  such  manifestations.  The  most  of  them 
indeed  through  the  prophets  were  not. 

Such  manifestations  could  not  affect  the  validity 
of  the  revelations  or  the  truth  of  divine  teachings. 
They  could  at  most  only  tend  to  confirm  the 
authority  of  the  promulgators.  The  ethics  prove 
themselves,  and  the  historical  facts  must  be 
proven  by  evidence.  The  truth  of  miracles  is  not 
a  question  of  power  in  God.  Omnipotence  can 
do  anything.  It  is  a  question  of  facts.  Have  we 
sufficient  evidence  of  the  truth  of  Jewish  or 
Christian  miracles  or  those  of  any  other  religion  ? 
For  all  systems  of  religion  excepting  the  Con- 
fucian, have  had  their  miraculous  phenomena 
and  abundance  of  them,  either  related  in  their 
bibles  or  external  to  them.  Our  Bible,  Ton 
Biblion,  the  book,  or  rather  Ta  Bihlia,  the  books, 
as  composed  of  many  writings,  is  xmdoubtedly 


loo  Evolution  of  Religions 

the  exponent  of  the  best  reHgion  of  the  world.  It 
surely,  if  any  are,  is  from  God,  hence  if  its  miracles 
are  true,  then  those  of  the  other  religions,  or  of 
some  of  them,  may  be  true  also.  But  if  the 
miracles  of  our  Bible  are  not  sufficiently  attested, 
then  those  of  the  other  religions  are  not  likely  to 
be  true,  for  they  are  generally  of  inferior  character, 
and  are  also,  like  ours,  devoid  of  outside  or 
external  historical  confirmatory  evidence.  All 
the  miracles  of  other  religions  are  rejected  by 
Christians  and  Jews,  and  only  the  miracles  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible  are  believed  in  by  Jews. 

Now,  were  the  miracles  of  our  Bible  actual 
facts,  or  only  allegories,  fables,  and  myths? 
Mere  arguments  will  not  suffice  for  answer  to  this 
question,  least  of  all  to  prove  the  affirmative. 
Inductions  from  assumed  mysterious  premises  or 
conclusions  from  ancient  beliefs  will  not  do. 
We  know  too  much  of  the  ignorance,  super- 
stition, and  credulity  of  the  ancients  to  give 
much  weight  to  their  stories  of  or  belief  in  super- 
natural phenomena,  even  if  the  evidence  for 
them  relatively  to  ordinary  human  affairs,  was 
very  strong,  which  in  reality  it  never  is.  No 
argument  is  needed  to  sustain  the  proposition 
that  vastly  stronger  evidence  is  required,  if  indeed 
any  human  testimony  can  be  sufficient,  to  prove 
the  fact  of  miraculous  occurrences,  than  of  ordi- 
nary or  even  of  extraordinary  natural  incidents. 
Because  miracles  are    wonders,  —  unnatural  and 


Consideration  of  Miracles         loi 

outside  of  all  ordinary  human  experiences,  — 
they  do  not  repeat  themselves  and  are  not  dupli- 
cated ;  whilst  ordinary  or  even  uncommon  human 
transactions  or  natural  events  are  in  line  of  the 
universal  experiences  of  mankind.  That  is,  we 
know  from  experience,  observation,  and  contem- 
porary history  that  such  occurrences  or  similarones 
have  happened  or  may  happen  in  line  with  and 
through  the  operation  of  human  events  or  moral 
and  natural  laws.  We  know,  for  instance,  if  three 
men  are  put  into  a  furnace  of  fire  and  kept  there 
a  few  moments,  they  will  be  cremated,  because 
such  has  been  all  history  and  experience,  and  is 
in  accordance  with  physical  laws,  and  if  a  con- 
trary result  is  alleged  in  any  case,  it  can  only  be 
proved  by  irrefragable  and  incontestable  testi- 
mony and  by  historical  and  public  monuments  of 
such  event  preserved  through  all  the  ages.  The 
purported  testimony  of  one  man  or  one  himdred 
men  could  not  prove  such  a  fact,  even  if  we  knew 
such  testimony  was  honest,  unless  safeguarded 
by  the  most  rigid  rules  of  evidence,  by  \miversal 
acceptance  of  it  in  the  region  where  it  occurred, 
and  by  permanent  memorials  of  the  fact.  Other- 
wise it  might  possibly  be  true,  but  there  would 
be  a  much  greater  probability  of  its  being  imtrue 
and  unreliable  through  ignorance,  deception, 
religious  fanaticism,  or  superstition.  We  remem- 
ber a  story  of  a  body  of  men  of  some  country 
village  in  the  state  of  Ohio  belonging  to  a  fanatical 


I02  Evolution  of  Religions 

religious  sect,  testifying  that  they  had  driven  the 
devil  in  bodily  shape  out  of  one  of  their  meetings 
and  compelled  him  to  seek  refuge  in  a  great 
caldron  of  boiling  water,  and  then  driven  him 
out  of  that  improvised  refuge,  and  banishing 
him  finally  from  their  neighborhood  by  smashing 
the  kettle  to  fragments  with  stones  and  other 
missiles. 

How  do  we  know  that  Shadrach,  Meshach, 
and  Abednego  were  cast  into  the  great  furnace 
of  Nebuchadnezzar  and  came  out  -unscathed  ?  Or 
that  the  Son  of  God  walked  with  them  in  the  fire  ? 
How  did  Nebuchadnezzar  or  any  of  those  present 
with  him  know  the  Son  of  God  or  how  He 
looked?  Where  is  the  evidence?  Not  a  word 
of  the  wonderful  story  in  the  nearly  contempo- 
raneous Chaldean  history  of  Berosus,  who  is  re- 
garded as  a  reliable  historian.  No  monument  of 
the  event  ever  existing.  Not  a  word  from  any 
one  who  saw  the  miracle  excepting  an  unknown 
Daniel,  and  we  know  not  that  any  such  person 
wrote  the  book,  and  the  book  itself  has  been 
proven  by  the  best  biblical  scholars  of  this 
century  to  be  a  religious  fiction,  written  imder  a 
pseudonym  by  an  imknown  Jewish  rabbi  long 
after  the  exile,  probably  about  the  year  165  B.C. 
And  the  exclamation  of  King  Nebuchadnezzar, 
* '  Lo,  the  form  of  the  fourth  man  is  like  the  Son  of 
God,"  is  evidently  an  interpolation  put  into  the 
ancient  version  by  some  enthusiastic  Christian; 


Consideration  of  Miracles         103 

for  nothing  was  known  or  taught  of  the  Son  of 
God  in  that  age.  And  similar  criticisms  as  to  evi- 
dence will  apply  to  most  of  the  biblical  miracles. 
While  most  of  the  Jews,  but  not  all,  believe  those 
narrated  in  the  Old  Testament,  they  do  not,  nor 
ever  did,  believe  at  all  in  any  of  the  miracles  of 
the  New  Testament,  although  they  must  have 
been  performed,  if  at  all,  in  the  very  midst  of 
their  ancestors,  the  learned  scribes,  Pharisees, 
and  Sadducees.  They  deny  that  those  miracles 
were  ever  performed.  If,  as  we  are  told,  we 
should  believe  the  Mosaic  miracles,  because  per- 
formed as  alleged  before  all  the  people,  and 
transmitted  down  by  traditions  to  all  their 
descendants,  then  for  the  same  reason  we  should 
disbelieve  the  evangelists'  miracles,  because  not 
believed  in  by  the  Jews  then  living,  excepting 
possibly  a  very  few  of  them,  nor  transmitted  in 
teachings  down  through  their  posterity. 

Really,  if  miracles  can  be  proven  at  all,  only 
unassailable  facts,  sustained  by  contemporary 
history  and  other  contemporaneous  evidence, 
without  any  dissentient  testimony,  can  establish 
to  honest,  intelligent,  and  independent  thinkers 
their  truth.  The  power  of  the  Almighty  is  not 
questioned,  that  is  not  in  issue,  though  believers 
in  miracles  try  to  make  it  so.  God  can  do  what 
He  wills.  Has  He  exhibited  miracles  or  per- 
mitted men  to  perform  them  ?  is  the  only  question 
in  the  issue,  and  that  should  be  disposed  of  like 


I04  Evolution  of  Religions 

any  other  question  of  fact.  And  if  He  did  four 
thousand,  three  thousand,  or  two  thousand  years 
ago,  why  not  now?  It  is  not  presumptuous  or 
irreverent  to  ask  such  questions  in  view  of  the 
myriads  of  Apocryphal  miracles  claimed  in  all 
religions  to  have  been  performed,  in  ancient  and 
some  even  in  modem  times,  and  which  all  Jews 
and  Christians  now  repudiate,  excepting  the 
Biblical  miracles.  God  everywhere  in  the  Bible 
appeals  to  our  reason  to  seek  the  truth  and  judge 
for  ourselves.  We  are  never  condemned  therein 
otherwise  than  for  not  obeying  our  reasons  and 
consciences. 

Should  mere  statements  in  ancient  manu- 
scripts alone,  some  by  pseudonymous  and  others 
mostly  by  anonymous  writers,  be  depended  upon 
as  sufficient  proofs  of  unnatural  occurrences, 
miracles,  theophanies,  or  visible  manifestations 
of  deity,  appearances  of  angelic  visitors,  demons, 
etc.,  and  these  performed  or  exhibited  always  in 
ages  of  ignorance  and  superstition  ?  ^  Why,  one- 
half  of  the  literature  of  the  world  up  to  five 
hundred  years  ago  are  stories  in  history  or 
poetry,  of  gods  and  goddesses,  angels,  devils,  and 
miracles.  The  laws  of  nature,  which  is  only 
another  name  for  the  laws  of  God,  we  know,  are 
universal,  uniform,  permanent,  and — the  presump- 
tion is  almost  amounting  to  an  axiomatic  truth — 
are  changeless.     There  may  be  new  discoveries 

*  Dr.  Briggs,  "The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason." 


Consideration  of  Miracles         105 

of  natural  laws,  and  new  applications  of  those 
laws  to  varied  purposes,  but  no  changes  or  rever- 
sals of  those  laws  have  ever  been  known,  unless 
such  may  have  happened  in  those  extraordinary 
and  miraculous  cases.  Miracles,  if  human  testi- 
mony can  suffice  to  prove  the  violations,  suspen- 
sions, or  reversal  of  those  laws  as  alleged,  then  the 
proofs  of  them  should  be  absolutely  overwhelming 
and  of  national  notoriety,  corroborated  by  monu- 
ments built  at  the  time  and  by  tmiversal  tradition 
and  concurrent  history,  \\4thout  any  particles  of 
conflicting  or  dissenting  testimony.  The  miracle 
so  attested,  should  be  in  every  respect  worthy 
of  divine  interposition  and  be  of  superhuman 
importance  at  the  time,  for  its  special  object  in 
accomplishing  some  great  work  which  otherwise 
could  not  have  been  done,  or  in  teaching  and 
perpetuating  some  grand  divine  truth  which 
otherwise  would  have  been  unimparted  and 
imknown.  Tested  by  this  last  rule,  many  Bible 
miracles  must  be  regarded  as  myths  or  poetic 
fictions.  No  testimony  of  a  generally  ignorant, 
credulous,  and  superstitious  people  in  regard  to 
supernatural  occurrences,  should  have  any  weight 
whatever.  No  mere  tradition  or  old  story  coming 
down  the  years  of  time  in  ancient  manuscripts 
can  suffice  to  prove  miracles.  Omnipotent  power 
and  infinite  wisdom,  we  are  justified  in  assuming, 
would  not  be  exerted  to  suspend  natural  laws  for 
any  excepting  the  most  momentous  purposes,  nor 


io6  Evolution  of  Religions 

indeed  for  any  object  whatever  which  the  ordinary 
laws  of  nature  could  provide  for  or  accompHsh, 
nor  if  done,  without  providing  such  overwhelming 
evidence  of  its  truth  for  all  time  as  could  not  be 
doubted. 

As  to  stories  of  angels,  demons,  and  other 
messengers,  good  or  bad,  from  the  spirit  world, 
mankind  anciently  were  so  prone  to  believe  in 
such  visitors  and  in  witches  and  ghosts,  that 
there  is  absolutely  no  reliable  testimony  any- 
where or  in  any  religion  concerning  the  appearance 
of  such  beings  upon  earth,  and  even  more  strongly 
than  in  the  case  of  miracles,  no  one  good  reason 
can  be  given  why,  if  seen  in  ages  past,  they  should 
not  visit  the  earth  at  the  present  day.  Some 
believe  that  they  do,  and  there  are  occasional 
stories  of  such  visitors  being  seen  and  conversed 
with  in  this  age,  but  none  but  the  intensely 
ignorant  and  superstitious  now  believe  such 
stories.  A  hundred  years  ago,  aye  even  two- 
thirds  of  a  century  ago,  in  my  memory,  such 
stories  were  very  generally  believed,  and  almost 
every  village  neighborhood  had  its  haunted 
houses,  its  ghosts,  witches,  and  hobgoblins. 
Education,  the  general  diffusion  of  knowledge, 
not  religion  or  its  ministers,  has  swept  those 
chimeras  away,  as  it  will  in  time  the  belief  also 
in  all  miraculous  stories.  Evidence  sufficient  to 
authenticate  ordinary  historical  facts  cannot, 
therefore,    for    the    reasons    already    stated,    be 


Consideration  of  Miracles         107 

sufficient  to  prove  miracles  or  stories  of  celestial 
or  infernal  visitors. 

Besides,  as  Muller  says,  "ordinary  historical 
facts  are  mere  questions  of  time  and  of  this  life, 
and  are,  therefore,  of  little  relative  importance,  but 
supernatural  matters  concern  a  future  life  and 
eternal  issues,  and  therefore  the  question  of 
their  truth  is  of  the  last  importance."  Hence  we 
repeat  that  no  miracle  is  reliable  as  a  fact,  no 
matter  in  what  book  it  is  found  or  by  how  many 
people  believed,  which  does  not  carry  the  seal 
of  its  truth,  according  to  evidence  or  similar 
conditions  already  indicated.  Its  truth  should 
be  unquestionable  to  every  reasonable  mind 
which  cared  to  examine,  and  if  not  absolutely 
convincing  both  as  to  its  internal  and  external 
fitness  and  proportions  and  concurrent  testimony, 
there  can  be  no  obligation  whatever  on  the 
seeker  after  truth  to  believe,  much  less  to  endeavor 
to  force  himself  to  believe,  as  some  fanatical 
Christians  think  the  doubter  should  do,  but  the 
very  reverse.  He  should  indignantly  repel  such 
imputation  upon  his  manhood  and  intelligence. 
We  should  be  false  and  recreant  to  our  moral 
natures  to  believe  or  endeavor  to  force  ourselves 
to  believe  anything  through  childish  fear  or 
religious  or  social  ostracism,  if  we  are  inclined 
to  believe  otherwise  or  for  other  reasons,  without 
mere  calm  conviction  of  the  truth. 

We  know  enough  of  God's  ways  to  assume 


io8  Evolution  of  Religions 

that  He  does  not  go  into  controversies  with  men 
to  prove  His  works,  and  that  if  in  the  accom- 
plishment of  His  divine  purposes,  He  should 
cause  miracles  to  be  performed,  He  would  accom- 
pany them  with  such  evidence  of  certainty  as  to 
be  overwhelming,  and  exclude  any  other  hypothe- 
sis than  their  absolute  truth.  We  may  assume 
He  would  not  require  belief  in  them  upon  the 
mere  naked  statement  of  one  or  two  or  three 
chronicles,  and  possibly  pseudonymous  or  anony- 
mous ones.  He  would  in  His  own  way  demon- 
strate their  truth  as  all  the  operations  of  nature 
are  demonstrated.  They  would  be  so  authenti- 
cated as  that  none  who  were  willing  to  believe 
could  disbelieve  or  doubt.  Do  any  of  our  Bible 
miracles  come  up  to  such  reasonable  require- 
ments as  to  authenticity?  By  no  means.  Many 
of  those  miracles  are  doubtless  allegories  or  poetic 
fictions  designed  to  teach  and  illustrate  great 
truths.  Such  are  the  beautiful  poems  of  Job 
and  of  Jonah,  which  are  as  grand  as  anything  in 
the  world.  Doubtless  many  miracles  were  only 
natural  occurrences,  connected  with  some  memo- 
rable events  in  Jewish  history,  and  which  were 
afterwards  transfigured  by  tradition,  legend, 
popular  stories,  and  priestcraft  into  the  super- 
natural. In  religion  as  in  natural  perspective 
it  is  true  "that  distance  lends  enchantment  to 
the  view."  For  instance,  it  has  been  believed  by 
some  biblical  scholars,  —  and  the  text  of  Exodus 


Consideration  of  Miracles         109 

justifies  that  belief,  —  that  the  migration  of  the 
shepherds  or  Israelites  from  Goshen  in  Egypt  to 
Canaan  passed  over  the  north  marshy  arm  of  the 
Red  Sea  near  Suez,  when  a  sirocco  was  blowing 
its  shallow  waters  southward  into  the  deeper 
gulf,  and  thus  permitted  the  people,  without 
vehicles  of  any  kind,  to  cross  on  comparatively 
firm  ground,  by  so  doing  avoiding  a  long  detour 
to  the  northward.  National  vanity,  poetic  license, 
and  priestly  legend,  for  the  wonder  and  gratifica- 
tion of  their  descendants  in  after  ages,  changed  the 
story  into  the  miracle  of  marching  in  coliimn 
across  the  bottom  of  the  deep  sea,  with  the 
waters  banked  up  as  walls  on  either  hand.*  After 
the  Israelites  crossed  over  the  marshy  ground 
the  Egyptian  army  may  have  attempted  to  follow, 
and  many  of  them  have  been  ingulfed  with  their 
horses  and  chariots  by  the  returning  waters. 
They  would  hardly  have  ventured  to  go  down 
the  precipitous  sides  into  the  oozy  bottom  of  the 
deep  sea,  incumbered  with  their  armor  and 
weapons,  with  horses  and  chariots.  "And  Moses 
stretched  out  his  hand  over  the  sea;  and  the 
Lord  caused  the  sea  to  go  back  by  a  strong  east 
wind  all  that  night,  and  made  the  sea  dry  land, 
and  the  waters  were  divided." 

The  crossing  of  the  river  Jordan  was  no  doubt 
done  when  its  waters  were,  as  they  are  often  now 
in   dry  seasons,    very   shallow  in   broad   places. 
•  Exodus  xiv,  21. 


no  Evolution  of  Religions 

So  doubtless  many  other  natural  events  in  the 
history  of  Israel  were  transfigured  by  time, 
tradition,  and  oriental  poetic  license  into  the 
supernatural,  as  was  the  case  in  the  ancient  history 
of  all  nations.  Many  miraculous  stories  in  the 
Bible  were  simply  mythical  ideas,  transformed 
and  clothed  in  fiction  and  poetic  imagery.  We 
agree  with  Rev.  Charles  A.  Briggs  where  he  says :  * 
*' There  can  be  no  doubt  that  recent  criticisms 
have  considerably  weakened  the  evidence  from 
miracles  and  predictive  prophecy.  To  many 
minds  it  would  be  easier  to  believe  in  the  inspira- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  and  the  divinity  of  Jesus 
Christ,  if  there  were  no  such  things  as  miracles 
and  predictions  in  the  sacred  Scriptures.  The 
older  apologetics  made  too  much  of  the  external 
marvels  of  miracle  working,  and  sought  to  find 
in  history  the  minute  details  of  the  fulfillment  of 
predictions."  Later  Briggs  continues:  "If  we 
insist  upon  the  fulfillment  of  the  details  of  the 
predictive  prophecies  of  the  Old  Testament,  we 
shall  find  many  of  those  predictions  have  been 
reversed  by  history."  ' 

One  of  the  arguments  which  has  always  been 
a  strong  one  and  elaborately  urged  by  Paley, 
Wilson,  Locke,  Butler,  Leander,  George  Rawlin- 
son,  and  many  other  writers  both  Jewish  and 
Christian,    to    maintain    the    truth    of    biblical 

*  Briggs,  "The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  p.  279. 

'  "  The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  p.  286,  Appendix. 


Consideration  of  Miracles         m 

miracles,  is  that  many  of  those  miracles,  such  as 
the  ten  plagues  of  Egypt,  the  passage  of  the 
IsraeHtes  through  the  Red  Sea  and  the  river 
Jordan,  the  feeding  of  the  people  for  forty  years 
during  their  wanderings  in  the  wilderness  of 
Northern  Arabia  (by  the  way,  an  absurdly  small 
territory,  probably  three  hundred  miles  in  length  at 
the  utmost,  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  in  breadth, 
for  a  nation  of  possibly  two  million  souls  to 
roam  around  in  for  so  many  years  doing  nothing, 
fed  by  miraculous  deposits  of  manna  from  the 
skies  and  flocks  of  quails,  alternately  coming 
from  somewhere  unknown  each  morning  and 
evening),  the  sun  and  moon  standing  still  for  a 
whole  day  at  the  command  of  Joshua,  the  walls 
of  the  city  of  Jericho  falling  of  their  own  accord 
before  the  beleaguering  army  of  Israel;  that  all 
these  and  many  other  supernatural  occurrences 
were  witnessed  by  all  the  Hebrew  people,  and 
that  the  stories  of  them  were  transmitted  as 
claimed  in  the  Bible  down  the  ages  from  fathers 
to  children  through  successive  generations,  and 
thus  kept  in  the  memories  of  the  people,  as  well  as 
by  their  sacrificial  worship,  annual  feasts,  etc.,  and 
that  unless  such  miracles  had  actually  occurred 
and  such  traditional  and  priestly  records  in  their 
sacred  books  been  continued  and  preserved  and 
read  from  generation  to  generation,  such  miracles 
would  not  have  been  believed  in  future  ages,  and 
consequently  must  be  true  as  so  attested.     Now, 


112  Evolution  of  Religions 

be  it  noted,  we  have  only  the  statements  in  books 
of  Deuteronomy,  Joshua,  and  Judges,  that  such 
customs  and  family  and  priestly  rehearsals  of  the 
history  and  occurrences  of  the  past  were  observed 
as  stated  and  so  taught  and  transmitted  to 
posterity  without  any  lapse  or  hiatus.  But  we 
know  from  the  same  and  other  books  of  the  Bible 
that  those  injunctions  to  so  perpetuate  the 
historic  memories  of  the  people  were  actually 
frequently  disregarded  by  the  Israelites  and  that 
long  lapses  did  actually  occur,  many  times  in  the 
traditional  worships,  and  repetitions  of  historical 
and  miraculous  past  events,  during  the  many 
and  long  backslidings  of  the  people  into  idolatrous 
worships  of  false  gods,  even  down  to  the  Baby- 
lonian exile,  during  which  periods  for  many  years 
at  a  time  they  renounced  and  forgot  the  teach- 
ings of  Moses  and  rejected  Israel's  God.  One  of 
the  sacred  writers  in  the  second  book  of  Chroni- 
cles states  that  in  the  reign  of  Josiah,  King  of 
Judah  (this  was  long  after  the  other  ten  tribes  of 
Israel  had  been  carried  into  captivity  in  Assyria), 
but  one  manuscript  copy  of  the  Torah  could  be 
foimd  in  all  Jerusalem  and  the  kingdom,  even  its 
existence  having  been  previously  tmknown,  and 
that  king,  priests,  and  people  were  alike  ignorant 
of  its  existence  and  astonished  at  its  contents. 
This  shows  not  only  that  there  had  been  no  read- 
ing of  the  law  in  the  Temple,  nor  discussion  of  its 
contents  in  the  homes  of  the  people  for  generations 


Consideration  of  Miracles         113 

past,  but  that  all  the  teachings  of  Moses  and  the 
early  prophets  had  been  forgotten. 

The  Jewish  Talmud  states  that  during  the 
Babylonian  exile  the  law  and  the  prophets  were 
entirely  lost  and  their  contents  forgotten,  and 
that  the  prophet  Ezra  recast  and  wrote  them, 
de  novo,  through  divine  inspiration,  so  that 
really  the  argument  for  the  truth  of  miracles  in 
continuity  of  tradition,  ancestral  instructions, 
rural  home  teachings,  consecutive  worship,  etc., 
historically  fails.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  in  dis- 
proof of  arguments  of  Paley  and  his  confreres, 
before  stated,  merely  casually  calling  attention 
to  the  astoimding  stories  of  innumerable  miracles 
said  to  have  been  witnessed  and  believed  in  by 
Brahmans,  Zoroastrians,  Buddhists,  and  Moham- 
medans, as  well  as  by  believers  in  all  other  reli- 
gions which  have  ever  existed,  as  firmly  as  Jews 
and  Christians  believe  in  our  Bible  stories,  we  have 
now  in  this  age  a  most  wonderful  object  lesson 
in  the  Latter  Day  Saints  or  Mormon  religion  in 
disproof  of  the  old  stereotyped  arguments  referred 
to.  The  Mormons,  a  sect  now  numbering  several 
millions  of  people,  mostly  Americans  and  English, 
and  generally  of  average  intelligence,  yield  unques- 
tioning belief  in  the  inspiration  of  all  the  fifteen 
books  which  compose  the  Mormon  Bible.  Now 
we  know  from  the  testimony  of  the  Mormons 
themselves,  as  well  as  from  contemporaneous  his- 
tory, that  their  Bible  with  its  books  of  histories, 


114  Evolution  of  Religions 

prophecies,  and  miracles,  all  total  fictions,  had 
no  known  existence  prior  to  its  being  found,  as 
alleged,  in  a  hill  called  by  them  Cumorrah,  in 
Western  New  York,  about  1823. 

It  was  found,  as  hereinbefore  stated,  by  one 
Joseph  Smith,  afterwards  the  Mormon  prophet 
and  leader  (in  pursuance  of  angelic  visions), 
engraved  in  an  unknown  language,  subsequently 
by  him  said  to  have  been  Hebrew  and  Egyptian, 
on  plates  of  gold.  The  plates  fastened  together 
by  a  ring  had  been  hidden  there  for  many  centuries 
unknown  to  any  human  being.  The  engravings 
were  translated  by  Smith  into  the  English 
language  by  means  of  diamond  spectacles  found 
with  the  plates,  and  with  the  assistance  of  an 
angel,  and  the  translation,  as  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
was  afterwards  published.  Smith  was  an  im- 
leamed  and  uncultured  man,  but  familiar  with 
our  Bible.  Now  this  Book  of  Mormon,  com- 
posed something  after  the  style  of  our  Scriptures, 
had  never  been  heard  of  before.  It  was  com- 
piled by  Mormon,  but  hid  away  where  found 
by  Moroni,  the  last  of  its  prophets,  who  is  said  to 
have  lived  in  the  fourth  century  a.d.,  somewhere 
in  this  country.  There  was  nothing  to  give  the 
book  the  slightest  authority  or  authenticity.  It 
was  a  new  revelation,  mainly  concerning  some 
Israelites  who  had  wandered  away  from  Palestine 
and  come  to  America  over  the  ocean,  in  far  distant 
times,    even  before  the  exile  to   Babylon.     The 


Consideration  of  Miracles         115 

book  had  simply  been  brought  out  of  oblivion, 
even  if  the  story  of  its  finding  were  true  and  not  a 
fiction  as  it  was. 

Where  are  the  golden  plates?  The  Mormons 
say  the  angel  carried  them  away.  Yet  within  a 
few  years  after  the  alleged  finding  of  the  book 
and  its  subsequent  publication  as  a  revelation 
from  God,  without  a  scintilla  of  evidence  of  the 
truth  of  its  contents  or  of  the  truth  of  its  alleged 
finding,  this  book,  a  naked  fiction,  without  any 
special  intrinsic  beauty  of  style,  or  merits,  is  in 
this  the  most  enlightened  country  of  the  world, 
and  this  cultured  age,  with  all  its  miracles,  visions, 
prophecies,  and  historical  narratives  implicitly 
believed  in  by  many  thousands  of  people,  as  di- 
vinely inspired.  To-day  it  is  believed  in  by  several 
millions  of  fairly  intelligent  persons,  who  regard 
it  as  equally  authoritative  as  the  Holy  Bible 
of  Jews  and  Christians,  and  probably  venerate 
it  more,  believing,  however,  in  both  Bibles  and, 
I  may  say,  thoroughly  orthodox  in  Christian 
tenets.  Joseph  Smith  is  venerated  by  the  Mor- 
mons nearly  as  highly  as  Jesus  Christ.  The 
pages  of  history  are  full  of  the  records  of  many 
almost  forgotten  and  of  a  few  surviving  religions, 
and  of  incredible  beliefs  in  all  sorts  of  deities  and 
astounding  legends,  but  Mormonism  illustrates,  as 
probably  no  other  religion  ever  did  so  thoroughly, 
the  absolute  and  utter  credulity  and  unreliabil- 
ity of  ordinarily  intelligent  human  beings  imder 


ii6  Evolution  of  Religions 

the  influences  of  superstition  and  fanaticism,  in  be- 
lief in  any  and  all  stories  of  the  supernatural.  Men 
and  women  under  certain  conditions  and  environ- 
ments will  believe  anything  supernatural,  espe- 
cially if  it  comes  down  to  them  from  supposed 
antiquity,  and  Mormonism  absolutely  confounds 
and  disproves  the  old  stereotyped  and  once 
supposed  invincible  and  overwhelming  argimient 
for  the  genuineness  of  biblical  miracles  on  account 
of  the  supposed  belief  of  the  Israelites  in  them 
only  through  or  because  of  ocular  evidence  and 
ancestral  teachings  and  rites  of  worship,  even  if 
there  had  been  a  perfect  continuity  among  their 
descendants  in  such  teachings  and  rites,  which  the 
Bible  history  shows  there  was  not,  nor  even 
continuous  belief,  for  they  often  utterly  forgot  the 
God  of  Israel  and  worshiped  heathen  gods. 

The  fact  is,  as  demonstrated  by  history  and 
imiversal  experiences,  that  any  shrewd,  intelligent, 
unscrupulous  impostor,  with  thorough  knowledge 
of  human  nature,  devout  austerity  of  manners,  and 
enthusiasm  in  his  work,  can  gather  up  followers 
for  any  creed,  attested  by  any  number  of  miracles, 
who  will  stand  by  him  to  the  last  and  believe 
everything  he  teaches,  and  the  times  and  his 
environments  will  determine  whether  his  faith 
and  the  number  of  his  followers  shall  develop  into 
a  great  religion  or  not. 


Consideration  of  Miracles         117 

'  Oh  the  lover  may- 
Distrust  the  look  that  steals  his  soul  away. 
The  babe  may  cease  to  think  that  it  can  play 
With  heaven's  rainbow.     Alchemists  may  doubt 
The  shining  gold  their  crucibles  give  out. 
But  faith,  fanatic  faith,  once  wedded  fast 
To  some  dear  falsehood  hugs  it  to  the  last." 


CHAPTER  VII 

INTERNAL  BIBLICAL  EVIDENCE  OF  MIRACLES 

MANY  writers  upon  the  subject  of  biblical 
authenticity  and  plenary  inspiration,  while 
admitting  that  the  external  testimony  to  its 
historical  statements  and  miraculous  stories  may 
not  in  all  respects  be  entirely  satisfactory,  yet  claim 
that  supplemented  by  all  the  internal  evidences 
in  the  Bible  itself,  the  truth  of  its  plenary  inspira- 
tion is  absolutely  impregnable.  Now  we  regret 
to  differ  with  learned  scholars  and  theologians 
embracing  many  distinguished  names,  but  we 
must  on  the  contrary  assert  that  there  are  many 
things  in  the  Scriptures  which  not  only  do  not 
per  se  add  conviction  to  the  external  evidence 
whatever  that  may  be,  but  rather  tend  to  weaken 
and  depreciate  it,  and  are  not  in  themselves  in 
accordance  with  other  teachings  in  the  Holy  Word, 
nor  with  proper  conceptions  of  God  as  the  omnipo- 
tent, omniscient,  and  omnipresent  Creator  of  the 
universe  and  wise  and  merciful  Father  of  all 
mankind.  We  shall  in  this  section  consider 
briefly  some  of  those  matters  in  the  Bible  itself 
which  we  think  disprove  the  theory  of  its  plenary 
divine  inspiration  and   of  its  infallibility  in  all 

ii8 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     119 

things,  and  which  will  sustain  our  contention 
that  while  the  Bible  in  its  total  summary  of  truth 
teaches  the  best  religion  of  the  world  and  the 
purest  ethics,  and  furnishes  in  the  Mosaic  code 
the  best  civil  and  criminal  laws  as  a  whole  of 
any  nation  of  those  ancient  times,  and  that  while 
"holy  men  of  old,"  as  probably  some  of  subse- 
quent ages,  were  inspired  to  teach  the  world  about 
God,  and  of  man's  duties  to  Him  and  to  his  fellow- 
men,  yet  that  some  things  they  taught  and 
recorded  were  only  human  and  fallible. 

The  higher  scholarly  criticism  of  the  past  one 
hundred  years  in  biblical  and  .general  religious 
fields  has  conclusively  shown  that  the  Hexa- 
teuch,  or  first  six  books  of  the  Bible  especially, 
and  probably  all  the  other  historical  and  most  of 
the  prophetic  and  poetic  books,  including  Psalms, 
Proverbs,  Job,  Ecclesiastes,  and  Song  of  Solomon, 
were  compilations  from  ancient  documents, 
traditions,  and  various  other  sources  by  imknown 
authors,  that  the  editors,  redactors,  or  com- 
pilers were  not  the  persons  whose  names  are 
given  to  the  books  as  their  authors,  and  that  the 
original  writers  of  the  manuscripts  from  which  the 
compilations  of  the  books,  as  we  have  them  now, 
were  made,  wrote  from  different  standpoints 
accordingly  as  they  belonged  to  different  classes  of 
Hebrew  writers,  as  Jehovists,  or  Judaic,  Elohists, 
or  Ephraimitic,  Deuteronomist,  and  Priestly 
schools.     The    idioms,  language,  thoughts,    and 


I20  Evolution  of  Religions 

style  of  expression  of  all  the  sacred  books,  espe- 
cially of  the  Old  Testament,  are  very  similar  and 
show  that  they  were  all  largely  edited  and  com- 
piled from  older  writings  into  their  present  form 
by  one  person  or  iinder  his  dictation.  Doubtless 
the  prophet  Ezra,  as  already  indicated,  and  as  we 
gather  from  the  book  which  bears  his  name,  and 
from  the  Apocryphal  book  of  Esdras  (really  the 
same  name),  and  as  Jewish  traditions  in  the 
Mishna  and  Talmud  assert,  assisted  by  his  col- 
league, Nehemiah,  was  the  compiler  of  nearly 
the  entire  Hebrew  Bible  in  its  present  form,  ex- 
cepting the  books  of  Job,  Esther,  Daniel,  and  some 
of  the  later  prophets,  which  were  undoubtedly 
written  after  the  exile. ^  Kings,  Chronicles,  Jonah, 
Isaiah  (after  fortieth  chapter),  Ezekiel,  and 
Jeremiah  were  written  during  the  exile.  Which 
books  were  inspired  and  entitled  to  be  put  into 
the  "holy  list"  or  canon,  and  which  should  be 
non-canonical  books,  in  both  the  Hebrew  and 
Christian  Scriptures,  was  an  unsettled  problem 
until  about  four  himdred  years  after  Christ,  when 
the  present  canon  was  finally  agreed  upon  by 
Roman  ecclesiastics,  after  having  been  the  subject 
of  intense  and  even  bitter  controversies,  both 
Jewish  and  Christian,  for  several  centuries.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  the  final  determination  and  settle- 
ment of  the  canon  embracing  also  all  the  books  now 
called  Apocryphal  by  Protestants  and  rejected 

*  See  Appendix,  Notes  B,  C,  and  D,  pp.  215-216. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     121 

by  them,  was  made  by  Pope  Imiocent  I,  in  405 
A.D./  and  so  we  have  the  blasphemous  absurd- 
ity of  one  man,  only  a  weak,  erring  man,  deciding 
for  the  whole  Christian  world  and  for  all  time  in 
that  ignorant  and  benighted  age,  the  question  of 
inspiration  of  biblical  books,  assuming,  as  it  were, 
to  put  the  Almighty's  seal  of  inspiration  on  them, 
the  Church  meekly  obeying  the  pontifical  bull, 
estabhshing  the  canon  issued  by  the  assumed 
successor  of  St.  Peter  as  head  of  Christendom 
and  vicegerent  on  earth  of  Jesus  Christ.  What 
mockery  of  divine  things ! 

Some  of  the  Apocryphal  books  which  the  bull 
of  Pope  Innocent  admitted  into  the  inspired 
canon,  such  as  the  second  book  of  Esther,  Tobit, 
Susarma,  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  are  simply  puerile 
fables,  and  it  is  astonishing  that  learned  Jewish 
rabbis  and  Catholic  scholars  would  ever  admit 
them  into  the  fellowship  and  sanctity  of  the  other 
sacred  books,  greatly  detracting  as  they  do  by 
such  association  from  veneration  for  them.  There 
is  no  divine  attestation,  we  assert,  to  the  biblical 
canon,  nor  is  there,  we  believe,  any  such  attesta- 
tion claimed  per  se,  and  consequently  the  canon 
entirely  depends  upon  ex  cathedra.  Any  person 
is  entitled  to  receive  and  believe  which  books  of 
the  Bible  are  really  inspired  and  canonical,  and 
which,  if  any,  are  not  according  to  his  convictions. 
With    Rev.    Dr.    Briggs,    profoimd   thinker   and 

*  Johnson's  American  Encyclopedia,  p.  40, 


122  Evolution  of  Religions 

biblical  scholar,  the  many  controversies  about 
Bible  canonicity,  as  well  as  discussions  of  miracu- 
lous -stories,  seem  to  have  had  little  influence,  for 
he  considers  some  of  the  books  as  legendary  and 
some  of  the  miracles  as  merely  fictions,  written  to 
explain  and  enforce  moral  truths,  and,  singularly 
enough,  bases  his  belief  in  the  inspiration  of 
Scriptures  only  on  such  of  the  books  as  from  the 
sublimity  and  beauty  of  their  moral  teachings 
and  delineations  of  divine  character,  give  internal 
attestation  of  inspiration.  As  he  broadly  sums 
up  his  theological  theorem,  "  Upon  the  witness  of 
the  Holy  Spirit."  Of  course  the  attestation  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  would  be  conclusive  and  final  if 
we  could  only  be  sure  of  its  decisions.  Dr.  Briggs 
does  not  furnish  the  test.  This  same  "attesta- 
tion "  of  the  Holy  Spirit  would,  of  course  a  fortiori, 
apply  equally  as  well  to  everything  beautiful, 
pure,  and  true  taught  in  the  sacred  books  of 
other  religions  as  in  ours.  But  how  can  we 
obtain  the  witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  excepting 
to  each  individual's  reason,  as  to  miracles,  ordi- 
nances, and  historic  statements?  How  can  we 
obtain  the  spirit's  proof  and  judgment  otherwise? 
And  how  know  when  we  have  it?  Dr.  Briggs 
does  not  inform  us.  Our  Bible  says,  "  From  God 
cometh  every  good  and  perfect  gift,"  and  whatever 
is  holy,  perfect,  and  true,  is  of  God  and  hath  the 
attestation  of  His  Holy  Spirit.  Further  than 
this,  we  see  not  and  know  not  excepting  as  our 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     123 

reason  convinces  us.  And  this  seems  ultimately 
to  be  Dr.  Briggs'  "Witness  of  the  Holy  Spirit," 
and  in  full  accord  with  his  liberal  views  of  the 
Bible  and  of  other  rehgions.  The  great  German 
scholar,  Dr.  Julius  Wellhausen,  says:^  "Of  the 
Hagiographa,  or  holy  writings,  including  Psalms, 
Proverbs,  Job,  Daniel,  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Ruth, 
Lamentations,  Ecclesiastes,  Song  of  Solomon, 
Esther,  and  Chronicles,  by  far  the  larger  portion 
is  demonstrably  post-exilic,  and  no  part  demon- 
strably older  than  the  exile.  Daniel  comes  down 
as  far  as  the  Maccabean  wars,  and  Esther  is  per- 
haps even  later.  Of  the  prophetical  literature,  a 
very  appreciable  fraction  is  later  than  the  fall  of 
the  Hebrew  kingdom,  and  the  associated  histori- 
cal books,  the  earlier  prophets  of  the  Hebrew 
canon,  date,  in  the  form  in  which  we  now  possess 
them,  from  a  period  subsequent  to  the  death  of 
King  Jeconiah,  who  must  have  survived  the  year 
560  B.C.,  for  some  time.  Making  all  allowances 
for  the  older  sources  utilized,  and  to  a  larger 
extent  transcribed  word  for  word,  in  Judges, 
Samuel,  and  Kings,  we  find  that  apart  from  the 
Pentateuch,  the  pre-exilian  portion  of  the  Old 
Testament  amounts  in  bulk  to  little  more  than 
half  of  the  entire  volume.  All  the  rest  belongs  to 
the  later  period,  and  it  includes  not  merely  the 
feeble  aftergrowths  of  a  failing  vegetation,  but 

*  Wellhausen' s  "History  of  Israel,"  Introduction,  p.  i. 


124  Evolution  of  Religions 

also  productions  of  the  vigor  and  originality  of 
Isaiah  xl  to  Ixvi  and  Psalm  Ixxiii." 

An  able  Jewish  scholar,  Rabbi  Berkowitz,  in  a 
sermon  preached  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  on  the 
Passover  Sabbath,  April  8,  1892,  says,  inter 
alia,  "  The  Jews  of  to-day  are  not  the  Jews  of  old, 
nor  are  they  responsible  for  the  long  forgotten 
and  obsolete  dogmas  which  create  the  ire  of  the 
followers  of  IngersoU ;  yet  we  are  held  responsible 
for  them  by  those  scoffers.  Do  they  not  know 
our  history?  Has  Judaism,  even  for  a  day,  in 
this  age,  asserted  that  the  Old  Testament  was 
aught  but  the  gropings  of  the  human  mind  in  its 
ardent  and  zealous  efforts  to  learn  and  obtain  the 
truth?  Has  Judaism  even  for  a  day  asserted 
that  the  Old  Testament  was  divinely  written, 
verbally?" 

We  will  now  take  up  and  review  some  of  the 
Bible  stories  which  we  think  militate  strongly 
against  the  theory  of  its  plenary  inspiration  from 
the  internal  point  of  view.  We  commence  with 
Genesis,  third  chapter.  The  authorship  of  that 
book  has  generally  been  ascribed  to  Moses,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  whatever  existing  that  he 
wrote  it.  It  contains  intrinsic  evidence  that  it 
was  originally  compiled  from  many  sources.  Its 
historical  and  traditional  revelations  doubtless 
came  largely  from  Assyrian,  Chaldean,  and  Egyp- 
tian fountains,  and  possibly  much  from  the  Zoro- 
astrian  Persian  priests,  whose  religion  antedated 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     125 

Moses  by  one  thousand  years,  and  whose  grand 
teachings  had  spread  far  and  wide  over  Central 
and  Western  Asia  by  the  time  of  Moses.  The 
latter  doubtless  was  acquainted  with  that  re- 
ligion, and  learned  his  pure  monotheism  from 
it.  He  was  also,  as  Exodus  tells  us,  thoroughly 
versed  in  the  learning  and  religion  of  Egypt,  his 
native  country,  which  we  know  from  history, 
among  its  many  subordinate  deities,  recognized 
and  believed  in  one  "great  supreme  God  of  Gods." 
Moses  may  have  originally  ^vritten  the  manu- 
scripts of  Genesis  and  Exodus,  as  well  as  the  other 
three  books  of  the  Pentateuch,  although,  as 
already  said,  there  is  no  evidence  but  tradition 
that  he  did  so,  and  all  those  books,  especially 
Genesis,  contain  intrinsic  evidence  that  many 
matters  were  interpolated  into  them  in  years  long 
after  his  time.  He  was,  no  doubt,  the  leader  and 
lawgiver  of  the  shepherds  of  Goshen, .or  Hebrews, 
after  their  migration  or  expulsion  from  Egypt, 
about  1500  B.C.,  a  great  and  good  man,  though 
Egyptian  annals  have  no  contemporary  history  of 
him. 

The  first  chapter  of  Genesis  is  a  wonderful 
story  of  creation  and  the  cosmogony  of  the  earth 
and  its  condensation  and  molding  out  of  primeval 
chaos.  According  to  modem  science  it  details 
very  nearly  correctly  the  order  of  the  astronomi- 
cal, geological,  and  paleontological  changes  and 
evolutions  which  occurred  through  long  eons  or 


126  Evolution  of  Religions 

ages,  whilst  the  earth  was  being  fitted  by  the  great 
Creator,  through  successive  preparatory  stages,  for 
vegetable  and  animal  life;  not,  of  course,  as 
seemingly,  literally  stated,  in  six  ordinary  days, 
but  actually  during  a  series  of  ages,  periods  of 
very  long  and  indefinite  duration,  as  is  generally 
taught  by  all  advanced  biblical  scholars,  as  well 
as  by  all  scientists  of  this  day.  In  fact,  only 
very  ignorant  and  fanatical  Jews,  Christians, 
Mohammedans,  and  Mormons,  cognate  religion- 
ists, now  believe  the  story  of  the  creation  literally. 
The  second  chapter  of  Genesis  is  evidently  from 
another  and  mythical  source.  The  supernatural 
comes  in.  It  contains  intrinsic  evidence  that  it  is 
not  of  or  in  line  with  the  original  and  natural 
account  of  creation  in  the  first  chapter,  but  was 
woven  out  of  other  legends.  Woman  had  already 
been  created  with  man,  "male  and  female." 
God  had  created  them,  she  man's  predestined 
and  inseparable  mate  for  time  and  eternity.  All 
of  the  other  progenitors  of  the  tribes  of  the 
animal  kingdom  had  been  previously  created  and 
all  God's  work  in  creation  had  been  finished 
according  to  the  first  chapter,  and  declared  good 
and  perfect,  and  His  day  of  rest,  the  Sabbath,  had 
come. 

But  the  mythical  story  in  the  second  chapter  of 
Genesis  tells  us  that  the  creation  of  woman,  man's 
natural  complement,  the  crown  and  glory  of 
creative  energy,  without  whom  man  was  nothing 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     127 

but  a  useless  freak,  was  an  afterthought  of  Deity, 
because  it  was  found,  probably  after  His  enlighten- 
ment by  observation  and  experience,  as  the  story 
suggests,  "that  it  was  not  good  for  man  to  be 
alone,"  and  because  among  all  animals  brought 
before  Adam  to  name  "there  was  no  helpmate 
found  for  him."  And  surely  all  the  human  race 
must  be  everlastingly  grateful  to  him,  that  he 
rejected  for  a  mate  all  of  the  other  creatures 
brought  before  him,  if  it  were  so.  Then,  accord- 
ing to  the  legend,  the  finale  to  the  great  work  of 
creation  was  enacted  by  the  Deity,  when  or  how 
long  after  the  day  of  rest  we  are  not  told,  creating 
and  fashioning  Eve  out  of  one  of  Adam's  ribs 
while  he  slept.  When  considered  with  reference 
to  all  the  environments  of  the  narrative  of 
creation,  and  apart  from  our  deeply  instilled 
and  almost  hereditary  reverence  for  the  Bible, 
would  we  not  be  apt  to  regard  this  story  of  the 
creation  of  Eve  as  a  silly  oriental  myth  ?  Really 
in  its  context  and  surroundings  it  bears  its  own 
refutation. 

We  have  in  other  religions,  especially  in  the 
Egyptian  and  Hindoo,  fabulous  histories  of  the 
creation,  but  we  must  say  in  justice  to  Genesis 
none  equaling  it  in  grandeur  and  simplicity,  nor 
any  so  nearly  corresponding  with  the  true  geo- 
logical story  "of  the  rocks  and  hills."  There 
are  various  other  legends  about  the  primeval 
age,  in  various  ancient  histories,  and  they  with 


128  Evolution  of  Religions 

anthropological,  paleontological,  and  geological 
discoveries  of  the  past  century  or  two,  rather  tend 
to  prove  that  there  were  other  progenitors  of  the 
various  races  of  men  originally  created  besides 
Adam  and  Eve,  in  the  various  continents  of  the 
earth.  But  whether  created  in  one  pair  or  many 
pairs,  as  the  other  orders  of  the  animal  kingdom 
probably  were,  as  indicated  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,*  man  and  woman  were  undoubtedly 
brought  into  existence  at  the  same  time  in  con- 
sonance with  nature's  general  plans  and  purposes. 
The  creation  of  either  sex  without  the  other  at 
the  same  time,  is-  an  unreasonable  theory,  and 
would  have  been  out  of  harmony  with  apparent 
creative  designs,  and  is,  besides,  contrary  to  the 
statement  of  the  creation  of  man  and  woman  on 
the  sixth  day.  "Male  and  female  created  He 
them."  ^  The  method  of  their  creation  is  of 
little  importance  compared  to  the  awful  tragedy 
which  soon  after  befell  them,^  the  most  awful 
tragedy,  if  literally  true,  which  ever  befell  the 
human  race,  the  most  dire  in  its  consequences  and 
the  story  of  which  demands  the  most  careful 
consideration  and  analysis. 

Doubtless  our  first  parents  were  created  perfect 
mentally  and  physically.  God  said  they  were 
"very  good,"  and  we  have  no  reason  to  suppose 

*  Genesis,  ch.  i,  verses  20-25  inclusive. 
^  Ibid.,  ch.  i,  verses  27,  28. 

*  Ibid.,  ch.  iii. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     129 

that  they  differed  from  their  posterity  in  form, 
mind,  powers,  passions,  or  in  other  respects  when 
first  created,  excepting  in  not  possessing  any 
hereditary  taints  of  diseases  or  depravities.  They 
were  perfect,  sinless,  but  Hable  to  sin.  All  their 
organisms  and  powers  were  good,  and  we  believe 
are  naturally  good  in  their  posterity  when  not 
diseased  and  corrupted  by  inherited  evil  traits,  as 
most  are  now.  God  had  pronounced  all  His 
works,  including  Adam  and  Eve,  to  be  "perfect" 
and  "very  good."  They  are  placed  in  the  Gar- 
den of  Eden.  Here  we  will  digress  awhile.  Where 
was  this  garden  ?  Or  is  the  story  of  it  merely  a 
myth?  Its  mythical  existence  is  shown  by  the 
story  of  its  location.  Although  spoken  of  as  lo- 
cated where  the  "river  which  went  out  of  Eden," 
and  from  thence  was  parted  and  became  the  heads 
of  four  well-known  rivers  and  the  locality  as  exist- 
ing when  Genesis  was  written,  which  was  certainly 
long  after  the  exodus  of  the  Israelites  from  Egypt. 
no  such  region  of  the  earth  where  the  four  great 
rivers  named,  or  any  other  four  great  rivers  had 
their  origin  or  fountain  heads  from  one  river,  has 
ever  been  known  in  history  or  geography  to  exist. 
The  four  rivers  named  could  never  have  had  the 
same   territorial  origin.^      It    is   impossible,  but 

>  Josephus'  "  Antiquities  of  the  Jews."  Book  First,  ch.  i, 
says:  "  Now  the  Garden  was  watered  by  one  river  which  ran 
round  about  the  whole  earth,  and  was  parted  into  four  parts." 
Such  was  ancient  geographical  knowledge. 


130  Evolution  of  Religions 

myths,  like  the  fables  of  the  Arabian  Nights,  do 
not  regard  impossibilities,  they  are  only  the  more 
alluring.  The  heads  of  the  four  rivers,  Euphrates, 
Pison,  Gihon,  and  Hiddekel,  supposed  to  be  the 
historic  and  modem  Euphrates,  Tigris,  Ganges, 
and  Nile,  are  three  thousand  miles  apart.  The 
story  is  an  ancient  legend  of  the  same  character 
as  the  Elysian  Fields  and  the  Gardens  of  the 
Hesperides  of  Greek  literature,  or  the  fabled 
Island  of  Atlantis,  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  of  the 
ancient  geographers  and  poets,  and  is  either  the 
basis  of,  or  evolved  from,  similar  mythical  creations 
in  the  folklore  of  ancient  Persia,  India,  and  Egypt. 
Eden  has  at  one  period  or  another  been 
fancifully  located  by  Jewish,  Christian,  and 
]\Iohammedan  writers,  in  nearly  every  region  of 
the  globe.  Some  have  located  it  in  the  tropics, 
and  some  at  one  or  other  of  the  poles,  which  are 
supposed  once  to  have  had  tropical  climates.  The 
latest  theory  of  its  location  we  have  seen  was  in 
an  article  on  the  subject  by  a  prominent  Christian 
divine,  who  claims  that  Eden  was  located  where 
the  Persian  Gulf,  or  Sea  of  Oman,  now  rolls  its 
waves.  The  reverend  dreamer  admits,  of  course, 
that  every  trace  of  the  wonderful  garden  has  been 
obliterated.  This  last  romantic  theory  is  as 
good,  and  probably  as  nearly  correct,  as  any 
other  of  the  multitudinous  disquisitions  on  the 
subject,  and  besides  has  the  merit,  if  believed,  of 
rendering  entirely  useless  further  speculation  or 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     131 

research.  An  Eden  submerged  ages  agone  under 
the  coral  groves  of  Oman's  Sea  is  not  easily- 
investigated.  But  the  question  of  Eden's  location, 
like  the  place  where  the  mythical  Noah's  Ark 
finally  rested  after  its  stormy  voyage  on  the 
billows  of  the  universal  Deluge,  is  really  not  a 
matter  of  much  consequence,  and  excepting  to 
illustrate  the  uncertainty  of  even  what  is  claimed 
as  inspired  narrative,  controversy  on  the  subject 
is  really  unprofitable,  even  if  interesting.  We 
believe  it  was  a  fabled  garden.  All  we  know  of  it 
or  can  ever  know  is  that  Genesis  says,  "The  Lord 
planted  a  garden  eastward  in  Eden.  And  a  river 
went  out  of  Eden  to  water  the  garden,  and  from 
thence  it  was  parted  and  became  four  heads,"  etc. 
The  fanciful  character  of  the  story  seems  suf- 
ficiently shown  by  the  allegation  of  one  mighty 
river  irrigating  the  garden,  and  after  leaving  its 
confines,  parting  there  and  becoming  reservoirs 
or  heads  of  each  of  the  four  great  rivers  named, 
the  source  of  one  of  which,  the  Gihon,  supposed 
to  be  the  Nile  of  Egypt,  was  in  a  different  conti- 
nent, and  thousands  of  miles  apart  from  the 
others  whose  sources  are  each  also  widely  sepa- 
rated. All  ancient  geographies  are  more  or  less 
fabulous  and  very  obscure,  even  when  partly 
correct,  and  the  story  shows  that  the  geography 
and  topography  of  Eden  were  very  illy  defined  in 
the  mind  of  the  author  of  Genesis.  But  to 
return  from  the  digression. 


132  Evolution  of  Religions 

Adam  and  Eve  came  into  possession  of  the 
garden  just  from  creation  at  God's  hands,  per- 
fectly guileless,  innocent,  and  pure  as  newborn 
babes.  Credulous,  without  any  knowledge  or 
experience,  and  totally  unknowing  and  unsus- 
pecting of  sin  or  evil,  they  are  permitted  to 
eat  of  the  fruit  of  every  tree  in  the  garden  but 
one,  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil, 
and  of  this  they  are  enjoined  not  to  eat,  for  the 
reason  that  if  they  should  eat  the  fruit  thereof 
they  should  in  that  day  surely  die.  The  death 
interdicted  must  have  been  natural  death,  but 
they  did  eat  of  the  fruit  of  that  tree  and  did  not 
die.  It  gave  to  them  a  conscience  or  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil.^  Was  this  knowledge  designed 
to  have  been  kept  from  them?  It  seems  so  from 
the  context.  But  what  was  the  tree  growing 
there  for?  God  in  His  omniscience  knew  that 
the  pair  would  eat  the  fruit.  But  would  not  this 
interdicted  knowledge  if  communicated  to  them 
previously,  have  prepared  them  against  the  ser- 
pent's future  wiles,  if  the  tragedy  were  not  pre- 
destined? And  what  was  the  tree  of  life  growing 
there  for,  if  not  to  counteract  the  evil  done? 
They  had  not  been  forbidden  to  eat  of  its  immortal 
fruit.  Unfortimately  as  it  seems  for  the  "hapless 
pair  and  their  posterity,  that  they  did  not  imme- 
diately after  partaking  of  the  forbidden  fruit  eat 
also  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life,  for  which  they 

*  Genesis,  ch.  iii,  verse  22. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     133 

seem  to  have  had  sufficient  time  before  they  were 
debarred  from  the  garden.  Had  they  done  so  it 
would  seem  that  Hfe  and  immortaHty  had  been, 
beyond  mistake,  fate,  or  peradventure,  irrevocably 
secured  to  them  and  all  their  posterity  forever. 

Why  was  God  so  apparently  determined  that 
Adam  and  Eve  should  not  "put  forth  their  hand 
and  take  also  of  the  tree  of  life  and  eat  and  live 
forever,"  thus  revoking  the  doom  incurred  by  eat- 
ing of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good 
and  evil?  Was  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil 
incompatible  with  immortality?  Certainly  not, 
because  it  is  not  so  now,  as  we  are  taught  in  the 
Gospels,  and  was  not  so  then,  as  Genesis  informs 
us  that  if  our  first  parents  had  eaten  of  the  fruit 
of  the  tree  of  life  they  should  live  forever  not- 
withstanding their  sin.  Those  were  most  wonder- 
ful trees,  the  fruit  of  the  one  imparting  conscience 
or  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  and  resulting 
death,  and  of  the  other  imparting  quenchless 
immortal  life,  conqueror  of  death.  They  were 
trees  of  no  botanical  order  or  species  ever  since 
known  on  earth,  and  must  have  been  the  one 
extinguished,  after  imparting  its  knowledge  so 
baleful  of  eternal  results,  and  the  other  trans- 
planted from  the  terrestrial  to  the  celestial 
paradise,  for  we  are  told  in  the  Book  of  Revela- 
tion, of  the  Tree  of  Life  growing  by  the  side  of  the 
Crystal  River  in  the  home  of  God. 

After  being  enjoined  not  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of 


134  Evolution  of  Religions 

the  tree  of  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  to  the 
astonishment  of  the  new  children  of  God,  a  great 
serpent  standing  erect  conies  before  Eve,  and  in 
her  speech  tells  her  that  if  she  will  eat  of  the 
forbidden  fruit  she  shall  not  die  as  God  had  told 
her  and  Adam  they  would,  but  on  the  contrary, 
should  become  as  Gods,  knowing  good  and  evil, 
which  they  must  naturally  have  supposed  was 
most  desirable  knowledge.  In  this  connection 
it  does  not  perhaps  matter,  at  least  not  with  the 
orthodox,  that  the  Bible  elsewhere  says,  "Thou 
canst  not  see  my  face,  for  there  shall  no  man  see 
my  face  and  live"  ^  ;  "No  man  can  see  God  at 
any  time"^  ;  "Whom  no  man  hath  seen,  nor 
can  see,"  ^  and  yet  that  Adam  and  Eve  are  repre- 
sented as  having  talked  with  God  face  to  face. 
Now  who  gave  the  serpent,  if  only  a  serpent, 
cimning  and  ability  to  talk,  or  if  it  was  Satan,  the 
evil  one  in  serpent's  guise,  who  permitted  him 
there?  Was  it  not  God,  and  did  not  God  know 
of  the  temptation  and  certain  ruin  Satan  was 
planning?  Most  certainly!  If  He  is  omniscient, 
none  can  doubt  it.  Now  is  it  strange  that  the 
innocent  pair,  filled  with  curiosity  and  desire, 
believed  this  wonderful  serpent  unlike  all  others 
of  his  kind  they  may  have  seen,  standing  erect 
and  gifted  with  their  speech?  Why  should  they 
not  believe  it  too  was  a  God  ? 

'  Exodus,  ch.  xxxiii,  verse  20. 

^  John,  ch.  i,  verse  18. 

^  Timothy,  ch.  vi,  verse  16. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      135 

It  seems  natural  that  they  should  have  so 
believed  and  confided  in  its  words  and  promises, 
negativing  as  it  did  the  other  God's  declaration 
that  they  should  die  if  they  ate  the  fruit  and 
promising  them  with  continued  life,  also  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  They  certainly 
believed  the  serpent's  words  and  doubted  God's. 
We  must  remember  —  and  this  should  be  carefully 
borne  in  mind  —  that  they  knew  not  any  evil  yet, 
nor  any  distinction  between  good  and  evil,  nor 
was  there  any  apparent  reason  why  they  should 
not  believe  the  serpent  as  well  as  God,  nor  did  they 
know  what  disobedience,  sin,  and  death  were. 
Having  no  moral  sense  or  guide,  how  could  they 
sin  or  know  sin?  The  temptation  was  over- 
powering. Seeing  that  the  fruit  was  pleasant 
to  the  eye,  and  to  be  desired  to  make  them  wise, 
and  apparently  good  for  food,  in  their  childish 
innocency,  curiosity  and  appetite  were  beyond 
control,  and  they  ate  the  fruit  from  whose  essence 
was  imparted  to  them  their  first  knowledge  of  sin. 
Was  not  this  a  most  astonishing  method  of 
imparting  moral  knowledge  through  the  palate 
and  stomach?  For  so  eating  of  that  fruit,  and 
lest  they  should  next  pluck  and  eat  of  the  more 
wondrous  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life,  standing  hard 
by  the  other  tree,  and  so  avert  the  late  decree  of 
death,  and  thus  secure  and  repossess  the  peerless 
gift  of  endless  life  for  themselves  and  their  pos- 
terity, we  are  told  the  hapless  pair  were  driven 


136  Evolution  of  Religions 

out  of  Paradise,  and  cherubims  armed  with  a 
flaming  sword  which  turned  every  way,  were 
placed  at  the  entrance  of  the  garden  to  guard  the 
way  to  the  tree  of  Hfe. 

The  mystic  Garden  of  Eden  has  never  since 
been  seen  by  human  eyes  or  trodden  by  human 
feet.  It  would  hardly  seem  useful  to  dwell  so 
long  upon  this  ancient  myth,  were  it  not  from 
it,  Christian  orthodoxy,  thousands  of  years  after 
the  supposed  occurrences  of  the  tragedy,  has 
evolved  the  existence  and  quasi-divinity  of  Satan, 
— the  omnipresent  and  omniscient  evil  being,  — 
the  gloomy  doctrines  of  the  fall  and  of  original 
sin,  with  all  their  consequences  to  the  human 
race,  the  tri-unity  of  God,  and  the  vicarious 
sacrifice  and  atonement  of  one  of  the  supposed 
persons  in  the  Trinity,  —  metamorphosed  Adam 
and  Eve  —  eo  instanti,  from  happy,  sinless  im- 
mortals into  utterly  lost,  sinful,  dying  mortals, 
and  deduced  the  passing  at  the  same  time  from 
God,  for  their  disobedience,  of  the  inconceivably 
awful  sentence  of  mortal  death  and  eternal 
punishment  on  themselves  and  all  their  posterity 
forever.  The  latter  part  of  the  sentence,  eternal 
punishment,  only  to  be  avoided  for  any,  as 
provided  in  the  coimcils  of  heaven,  then  held, 
by  Jesus  Christ,  one  of  the  persons  in  the  mystic 
Trinity,  Son  of  God,  really  God  Himself,  then 
engaging  to  come  to  earth  four  thousand  years 
afterwards,  and  to  be  conceived  and  bom  of  a 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     137 

human  woman,  as  an  incarnation  of  God,  and 
then  as  such  to  offer  Himself  as  a  sacrifice  upon  a 
cross,  as  an  atonement,  to  whom?  Verily  to 
Himself  as  God,  and  for  what  ?  Why,  for  Adam 
and  Eve's  sin  of  eating  the  forbidden  fruit,  and 
for  the  inheritance  or  imputation  of  the  same 
original  or  metaphorical  sin,  as  personal  guilt  to 
each  of  their  prospective  myriads  of  posterity,  as 
well  as  for  the  actual  sins  of  themselves  and  all 
such  posterity,  through  all  future  ages,  in  case 
they  should  all  believe  in  and  accept  this  dogma ! 
Or  as  atonement  for  so  many  of  their  posterity 
only  as  might  actually  in  all  the  subsequent 
years  of  time  so  believe  and  repent  of  not  only 
their  actual  sins,  but  also  of  the  aforesaid  original 
sin,  although  the  most  of  such  posterity  might 
know  nothing  of  and  have  never  heard  of  such 
original  sin.  The  efficacy  of  such  to  be,  future 
atonement,  we  are  taught,  extended  in  some 
mysterious  way,  as  well  to  all  the  good  people, 
the  elect,  who  lived  and  died  previous  to  the 
Savior's  crucifixion,  as  to  those  who  lived  after 
such  expiation,  although  those  who  lived  and 
died  in  Israel,  or  out  of  Israel,  among  the  Gentiles, 
in  the  long  centuries  which  intervened  before  the 
death  of  Christ,  so  far  as  we  have  any  knowledge 
now,  knew  nothing  of  this  wonderful  scheme  of 
atonement  and  salvation.  No  information  of  such 
scheme  of  atonement  was  ever  before  the  Savior's 
life  on  earth,  and  for  that  matter  not  then,  nor  for 


138  Evolution  of  Religions 

a  generation  or  more  afterwards  given  in  the 
Scriptures  or  elsewhere.  Certainly  not  in  the 
old  Scriptures  then  existing. 

We  think  this  is  a  truthful  presentation  of  the 
story  of  the  fall  and  of  the  orthodox  doctrines 
evolved  by  mediaeval  Christian  ecclesiastics  there- 
from, stripped  of  all  the  mysticisms  and  meta- 
physics with  which  that  school  of  theology  has 
surrounded  them  to  befog  the  human  mind.  Of 
course  the  "People  of  the  Book,"  the  Israelites, 
the  original  authors  and  custodians  of  the  Bible, 
never  knew  or  believed  such  doctrines.  We  read 
nothing  more  of  Adam  and  Eve  in  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures,  excepting  their  paternity  of  children, 
age,  and  death,  after  living  for  centuries.  In  the 
New  Testament  epistles,  however,  many  com- 
ments written,  supposedly  over  four  thousand 
years  afterwards,  are  made  upon  their  disobedi- 
ence and  its  dire  consequences  in  bringing  sin 
and  death  into  the  world.  Jesus  Himself,  in  all 
His  grand  discourses,  had  nothing  to  say  about 
the  primeval  fall  or  the  wonderful  system  of 
atonement  then  supposed  to  have  been  conceived 
in  heaven. 

Subsequently,  beginning  several  centuries  after 
His  death,  the  present  system  of  orthodox  religion 
was  elaborated  and  formulated  in  the  Dark  Ages 
by  monastic  mysticism  and  fanaticism,  largely 
directed  by  Athanasius  and  St.  Augustine,  into 
the  amazing  scheme  of  redemption  as  aforesaid, 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      139 

claimed  to  have  been  devised  in  heaven  at  the 
time  of  the  fall  of  Adam  and  Eve,  and  thence 
running  down  through  all  the  ages,  as  a  corollary 
to  the  wonderful  miracles  and  sacrificial  worship 
of  the  Hebrews,  which  were  mainly  designed,  it  is 
said,  as  typical  of  the  sacrifice  and  atonement  of 
Jesus,  and  finally  culminating  in  His  death.  Now, 
verily,  is  the  story  of  Eden  anything  but  a  myth 
of  the  ancient  Zoroastrian  or  Chaldean  Magii, 
endeavoring  to  account  for  the  introduction  of 
sin  and  evil  in  the  world  originally,  which  was  a 
favorite  quest  of  old-time  philosophers?  Doubt- 
less an  ancient  Mesopotamian  legend  of  a  primi- 
tive paradisaical  Garden  of  Eden  and  home  of 
our  first  parents,  was  recast  by  an  infusion  of  later 
Zoroastrian  tenets  about  evil  and  Satan  during 
the  Babylonian  exile,  into  the  present  Bible 
version  of  older  Hebrew  writings,  which,  as  here- 
tofore stated,  was  redacted  and  compiled  by  the 
prophets,  Nehemiah  and  Ezra,  after  the  return 
of  the  bulk  of  the  Jews  to  Palestine  about  450  B.C. 
The  Hebrews  previously,  as  may  be  gathered 
from  a  study  of  their  few  pre-exilian  sacred  books, 
evidently  had  no  knowledge  of  or  belief  in  Satan 
until  they  mingled  with  the  Persian  and  Baby- 
lonian priests  during  their  long  exile.  But  we 
will  return  to  the  Edenic  story.  What  reason 
have  we  to  believe  that  our  first  parents  ever 
passed  through  a  supernatural  process  of  physi- 
cal change   of  their  bodies  from  immortal  and 


I40  Evolution  of  Relig^ions 


&' 


changeless,  to  mortality,  to  liability  to  future 
disease  and  death?  What  evidences  are  there 
in  nature,  anthropolog>^  paleontology,  or  other 
sciences  to  prove  that  they  were  ever  otherwise 
physically,  mentally,  and  morally  than  their  pos- 
terity? None  whatever!  Nothing  but  the  naked 
story  of  Eden  and  the  fall!  Is  that  sufficient 
evidence,  or  is  it  indeed  any  evidence  at  all?  It 
is  said  that  it  was  revealed  to  the  writer,  who- 
soever he  was,  by  Deity,  and  therefore  must  be 
true.  But  that  is  a  mere  assumption,  without 
any  testimony  whatever,  and  disproved  by  the 
internal  testimony.  A  mere  begging  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  therefore  proving  nothing. 

So  incongruous  and  absurd  is  the  story  that  if 
forced  to  believe  it  and  the  awful  doctrine  of 
eternal  punishment  deduced  therefrom,  or  reject 
the  Bible,  I  should  discard  the  latter,  excepting 
wherein  historically  sustained.  Any  religion  that 
teaches  literally  the  dogma  of  eternal  ptuiishment 
is  ipso  facto  false.  The  statement  that  Adam 
and  Eve  were  driven  out  of  Eden  after  their  dis- 
obedience, lest  they  should  eat  of  the  fruit  of  the 
tree  of  life  and  thereby  live  forever,  indicates 
that  the  fruits  of  the  two  trees  were  antagonistic, 
and  that,  whereas  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil  resulted  in  depriving 
Adam  and  Eve  of  bodily  immortality,  the  eating 
of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life  would  have  restored 
that  boon  to  them,  notwithstanding  the  previous 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     141 

sentence  of  death.  In  other  words,  it  was  an  anti- 
dote to  the  first  fruit,  if  eaten,  and  annulled  God's 
decree.  Can  it  be  that  God  would  have  thus 
virtually  ignored  His  sovereignty,  and  left  the 
question  of  temporal  death  and  eternal  misery 
on  the  one  hand,  and  of  endless  life  and  happiness 
on  the  other,  to  the  chances  of  destiny  as  to 
whether  one  or  both  fruits  were  eaten  ?  Certainly 
such  arbitrament  does  not  comport  with  the  char- 
acter of  the  Almighty.  Would  their  eating  of 
the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life  with  the  gift  of  physi- 
cal immortaHty  have  also  restored  them  to  God's 
favor  again,  and  thus  closed  forever  the  yawning 
abyss  of  hell?  They  seem  to  have  had  time  to 
eat  of  the  fruit  of  the  tree  of  life  after  they  real- 
ized their  sin  and  before  they  were  banished  from 
Paradise.  If  so,  if  they  knew  of  such  tree  of 
life,  it  seems,  humanly  speaking,  most  imfortu- 
nate  for  them  and  their  luckless  posterity,  that 
they  did  not  hasten  to  eat  that  immortal  fruit,  for 
it  seems,  had  they  done  so,  — for  the  previous  inter- 
diction only  appHed  to  their  eating  of  the  fruit  of 
the  tree  of  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  —  then 
disease,  death,  and  hell  would  have  been  forever 
unknown  to  mankind.  But  it  was  not,  it  seems, 
God's  will  that  they  should  do  so  and  thus  escape 
such  dire  consequences.  Indeed,  according  to  the 
inevitable  logic  of  the  story,  the  whole  tragedy 
was  God's  will  if  the  story  be  true.  But  it  is  only 
a   myth.     Evidently   constituted   physically,    as 


i4!i  Evolution  of  Religions 

their  descendants  are,  death  from  old  age  and 
the  wearing  out  of  the  vital  functions  of  their 
bodies,  if  not  from  disease,  was  inherent  in  Adam 
and  Eve's  natures  as  well  as  in  their  children's 
and  always  was  an  essential  condition  of  human 
life.  Doubtless  our  first  parents  were  perfect  in 
every  respect  as  just  coming  from  God's  hands, 
but  yet,  possessing  in  perfection  all  ordinary 
human  -faculties,  passions,  hopes,  and  appetites, 
as  their  descendants  have,  liable  to  degeneracy 
from  vice  and  evil  habits. 

Neither  the  Bible,  nature,  nor  human  anatomy 
and  physiology  indicates  that  the  laws  of  genera- 
tion and  heredity  were  ever  changed.  Did  our 
first  parents  live  otherwise  and  sin  other\\dse  than 
God  knew  they  would  when  He  gave  them  being  ? 
Certainly  not!  To  assume  otherwise  denies  His 
omniscience.  God  knew  they  would  succumb  to 
the  tempter's  wiles  just  as  well  when  He  first 
placed  them  in  the  garden  as  He  knew  when 
they  ate  the  forbidden  fruit.  Innocent  and  un- 
suspecting, knowing  not  evil  from  good,  nor  any 
moral  distinctions,  prohibited  from  eating  certain 
fruit,  by  one  being  whom  they  must  have  supposed 
greater  than  themselves,  and  solicited  to  do  so, 
by  another  being  whom  under  the  circum- 
stances they  must  have  supposed  a  Deity  also 
equal  or  nearly  equal  with  the  other,  I  have  no 
conceptions  of  the  Almighty  which  would  permit 
me  to  believe  that  He  deliberately  allowed  such 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     143 

a  tragedy  to  occur.  If  true,  the  most  momentous 
that  ever  occurred  on  earth,  a  tragedy  vastly 
greater  than  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  for  that, 
if  orthodoxy  be  true,  simply  made  it  possible 
for  man  to  escape  from  some  of  the  resultant 
horrors  of  the  fall,  and  only  from  a  part  of  them, 
the  natural  death  of  all  human  beings  who 
might  ever  live,  being  one  of  its  inevitable  results, 
the  other  being  the  imdoing  and  eternal  ruin  of 
the  whole  race,  and  to  prevent  that,  making  the 
tragedy  of  the  crucifixion  necessa^>^  By  the 
fall,  God's  perfect  sinless  and  immortal  children, 
destined  to  be  progenitors  of  myriads  of  descend- 
ants, who  would  inherit  their  natures  and  des- 
tinies, in  a  day  became  utterly  changed  and 
depraved,  lured  by  an  evil  monster  in  their  inno- 
cency  from  their  Godlike  state  to  utter  moral 
and  physical  ruin,  and  doomed  in  themselves  and 
all  their  posterity,  who  otherwise  would  have  been 
ever  holy  and  immortal,  to  earthly  death  and  to 
eternal  misery.  The  omnipotent  God  knowing 
all  that  was  happening,  able  to  prevent,  and  yet 
not  putting  forth  His  hand  of  mercy  to  save, 
merely  His  fiat,  to  save!  Away  it  is  a  Mephis- 
tophelian  story,  an  imhallowed  dream.  But,  say 
the  orthodoxists,  —  for  on  the  story  of  Eden  and 
the  fall,  their  entire  system  of  doctrine  depends, 
and  if  Eden  is  a  myth,  then  the  Trinity,  atone- 
ment of  Jesus  Christ,  and  eternal  piinishment,  all 
are  myths,  —  Adam  and  Eve  were  free  agents,  and 


144  Evolution  of  Religions 

God  could  not  interfere  to  save  them  from  the 
wiles  of  Satan,  except  by  destroying  their  free 
agency. 

Well,  let  free  agency  be  destroyed,  if  upon  its 
maintenance  as  a  principle  was  involved,  as 
known  to  God,  the  temporal  and  eternal  ruin  of 
the  entire  human  race.  But  such  free  agency  as 
Adam  and  Eve  had,  was  a  delusion.  According 
to  the  context  of  the  story  in  Genesis,  it  was  such 
free  agency  as  exists  in  an  infant  five  years  old 
against  overmastering  temptation.  It  was  vir- 
tually guileless  infancy  in  a  contest  with  the 
embodiment  of  guile  and  treachery.  The  theory 
and  argument  of  free  agency  in  such  cases  are 
delusions.  Should  not  God  have  advised  and 
warned  them  against  the  insidious  tempter?  Is 
there  any  intimation  that  He  did  so?  Would 
such  warning  have  destroyed  their  free  agency? 
Adam  and  Eve's  disobedience  was  apparently  no 
more  heinous  than  any  ordinary  violation  of 
God's  laws  by  innocent  children.  They  had,  so 
far  as  the  pages  of  the  Bible  inform  us,  no 
conception  of  the  awful  penalty  liable  to  be  in- 
curred,—  a  penalty  which  must  seem  to  any 
reasonable  mind,  uninfluenced  by  religious  bias, 
absolutely  incommensurate  with  the  offense. 
What  could  they  know  of  even  temporal  death? 
They  had  as  yet  seen  no  one  die.  Why  did  not 
Omniscience  warn  them  of  the  archtempter  and 
his  wiles?     The  story  of  Eden  cannot  be  one  of 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      145 

fact,  and  as  an  allegory  it  is  difficult  to  compre- 
hend its  purposes,  excepting  as  designed  to  ac- 
count for  the  origin  of  evil  in  the  world.  If  a 
real  tragedy,  humanly  speaking,  it  would  seem  it 
had  been  better,  infinite  mercy  indeed,  if  the  sin 
could  not  have  been  prevented  and  the  tragedy 
arrested,  that  the  sentence  of  death  upon  the 
offending  pair  had  at  once  been  carried  out,  if 
such  awful  results  must  have  necessarily  fol- 
lowed their  disobedience,  and  new  immortals 
created  to  beget  posterity,  and  re-people  a  paradi- 
siacal earth.  If  the  story  is  not  a  myth  or  legend, 
but  a  fact,  then  we  can  only  say  that  it  seems  to 
us,  — and  we  are  incapable  of  understanding  how 
it  can  seem  otherwise  to  any  one  who  has  fair 
reasoning  powers  and  uses  them,  and  is  not  a 
slave  to  religious  bigotry,  —  that  either  God  knew 
and  willed  the  drama  of  the  fall  and  its  awful 
results  as  part  of  His  universal  economy  for  pur- 
poses beyond  human  ken  and  foreign  to  himian 
weal,  or  else  that  His  original  plan  in  the  creation 
of  Adam  and  Eve  was  then  and  there  thwarted 
by  man,  destiny,  or  Satan. 

Neither  theory,  according  to  a  proper  concep- 
tion of  God,  can  be  true,  and  hence  we  must 
belive  the  story  of  Eden  to  be  entirely  mythical. 
Indeed,  it  is  contrary  to  every  attribute  of  God 
and  is  derogatory  to  the  doctrine  of  biblical 
plenary  inspiration,  or  rather  of  any  inspiration  at 
all,  instead  of  furnishing  any  internal  attestation 


146  Evolution  of  Religions 

to  it.  Really  the  story  as  a  literal  fact  of  a  super- 
natural occurrence  has  very  few  believers  at  pres- 
ent among  Jews  or  even  Protestant  Christians, 
The  most  earnest  and  perhaps  the  only  really 
earnest  believers  in  it  in  this  age  are  Mohammed- 
ans, Mormons,  and  Roman  Catholics.  It  is  aston- 
ishing that  while  so  many  Protestant  Christians 
regard  the  story  of  Eden  as  a  myth  or  fable, 
they  should  nevertheless  absolutely  believe  in  the 
doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  the  vicarious  atonement  of 
Christ,  and  eternal  punishment,  as  Eden  is  the 
comer  stone  of  the  orthodox  temple  built  up  on 
such  doctrines,  and  without  Eden  the  whole 
structure  must  fall. 

While  on  this  subject,  and  before  dismissing  it, 
we  desire  to  say  that  apart  from  their  many 
poetic  beauties  and  wonderful  portrayals  of 
paradisaical  and  celestial  scenery  and  inhabitants 
there  does  not  seem  to  us  to  be  anything  more 
absurd  and  horrible  in  the  whole  realm  of  literary 
composition  than  Dante's  "Inferno,"  Milton's 
"Paradise  Lost,"  and  the  portraitures  of  hell 
and  the  judgment  day  in  Pollock's  "Course  of 
Time,"  the  latter,  by  the  way,  a  poem  little  known 
now,  but  very  popular  in  the  early  part  of  the 
last  century.  Each  of  those  poems  is  wholly 
based  upon  the  story  of  Eden,  the  Apocalypse  of 
the  Book  of  Revelation,  and  of  the  dreadful  creed 
of  divine  vengeance,  which  orthodox  fanaticism 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      147 

has  manufactured  out  of  them.  We  cannot  con- 
ceive how  any  sane  mind  and  healthy  soul  en- 
dued with  proper  conceptions  of  God  and  love 
of  fellow-men,  can  peruse  the  awful  "hells"  of 
those  poems  with  any  feelings  but  horror  and 
disgust.  Yet  Dante's  "Inferno"  and  Milton's 
"Paradise  Lost"  are  popular  with  many  people, 
and  splendid  editions  of  these  poems,  ornamented 
generally  with  horrible  pictures  of  hell,  Satan,  and 
his  devils,  and  the  writhing  and  burning  damned, 
are  produced  annually  and  sold  in  great  numbers 
as  souvenirs  for  birthday  and  holiday  presents 
from  relatives  and  friends.  We  have  read  those 
poems  several  times,  only  the  more  sadly  to  regret 
each  time  such  splendid  talents  wasted,  in  our 
judgment,  in  such  works  and  the  more  utterly  to 
condemn  their  horrible  portrayals  of  infinite  hate, 
misnamed  justice.  Much  harm  and  no  good  are 
done  by  these  poems.  Morbid  feelings  in  religion 
are  engendered  and  perverted  conceptions  of  law 
and  justice  taught.  In  them  mercy  and  love  are 
utterly  ignored,  while  in  "Paradise  Regained" 
mercy  is  vouchsafed  to  those  only  who  are  saved 
by  the  atonement  of  Christ  and  their  acceptance 
of  the  dogmas  of  orthodoxy.  It  is  true  that  the 
horrible  fantasies  of  the  world,  of  the  damned 
in  these  poems,  with  the  storms  of  divine  ven- 
geance, and  the  waves  of  the  ocean  of  eternal 
flames  ever  pursuing  them,  in  that  world  of  despair 


148  Evolution  of  Religions 

once  almost  iiniversally  believed  in  as  real  and 
thiindered  forth  from  every  pulpit  in  Christendom, 
are  now  only  read  as  weird  fictions  by  most 
intelligent  people.  Their  dreams  of  the  "hell" 
of  those  poems  will  be  mingled  in  the  not  distant 
future  only  with  historic  memories  of  that  other 
old  orthodox  institution,  the  Spanish  Inquisition, 
which  with  its  horrible  instruments  of  torture 
was  used  by  the  Church  of  Rome  for  many  cen- 
turies to  give  himdreds  of  thousands  of  heretics  a 
foretaste  of  hell. 

In  not  very  remote  future  times,  we  predict 
these  poems,  along  with  much  of  the  once  standard 
theological  works  of  Athanasius,  St.  Augustine, 
John  Calvin,  Rev.  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  many 
other  once  famous  writers  of  that  class  of  fanatics 
on  the  same  subject,  will  be  relegated  to  anti- 
quarian collections  as  mementoes  of  the  old 
dreadful  tenets  of  semi-barbarian  orthodoxy. 
They  are  a  blighting  curse  upon  the  human  soul 
and  intellect,  deadening  the  finest  sympathies  and 
obliterating  all  rational  sense  of  justice  and  mercy, 
when  the  mind  and  soul  are  fully  possessed  of  their 
morbid  sentiments  and  dwarfed  and  depraved 
ideas  of  Deity.  This  has  been  illustrated  in 
the  lives  of  many  of  the  most  bigoted  advocates 
and  teachers  of  orthodox  Christianity.  Their 
natures  were  hard  and  imforgiving.  They  seemed 
to  have  had  in  them  very  little  of  the  milk  of 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      149 

human  kindness.  We  will  not  specify  individual 
cases.  They  were  the  people  who  burned  poor 
old  women  as  witches  and  who  piled  the  fagots 
around  the  so-called  heretic  martyrs  of  the  Dark 
and  Middle  Ages,  who  were  really  the  best  people 
of  those  days. 

Their  doctrines  naturally  made  them  perse- 
cutors of  men  of  science  and  liberal-minded 
Christians.  Pagan  Rome  never  murdered  half  as 
many  Christians  as  the  Holy  Church  of  the  Dark 
Ages.  Who  made  the  Stygian  gulf  of  hell,  with 
its  outer  abode  of  everlasting  darkness  and  in- 
ternal flames,  horrible  monsters,  and  awful  hor- 
rors a  world  of  woe  for  lost  sinners,  compared 
with  which  the  Hades  of  the  Greek  mythology 
was  a  paradise  ?  Was  it  not  the  Christian's  hell, 
invented  by  the  old  Fathers?  Dante,  Milton, 
Calvin,  and  Edwards  merely  illumined  it.  What 
of  mercy,  what  of  anything  but  inexorable  hate, 
is  apparent  in  the  conception  of  the  utmost  hor- 
rors and  agonies  made  to  be  the  portion  of  the 
lost  forever?  Why  was  not  banishment  from 
paradise  forever  alone  sufficient?  No  darker 
horrors  could  possibly  be  conceived  by  a  human 
mind  and  scarcely  by  a  God.  The  God  of  those 
poets  and  divines  does  not  exist.  The  God  of 
the  Bible  truly  portrayed  and  comprehended  is 
all  holy  and  of  infinite  mercy  and  love.  He  pun- 
ished but  for  the  good  of  His  children. 


150  Evolution  of  Religions 

"  The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strained, 
It  droppeth  as  the  gentle  rain  from  Heaven 
Upon  the  place  beneath.     It  is  twice  blessed. 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives  and  him  that  takes. 
'Tis  mightiest  in  the  mightiest, 
And  earthly  power  does  then  show  likest  God, 
When  mercy  seasons  justice." 

—  Shakespeare's  " Merchant  of  Venice." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

INTERNAL    EVIDENCE    OF     MIRACLES,     ETC.  —  con- 
tinued 

THERE  are  many  other  supernatural  state- 
ments and  some  historical  narratives  in  the 
Scriptures  which  do  not  of  themselves  carry 
internal  evidences  of  authenticity,  but  rather 
tend  to  imbelief.  Some  of  the  miracles  are  of  a 
low  order  of  supematurals,  entirely  deficient  in 
character  and  in  all  qualities  and  surroundings 
which  should  go  towards  constituting  internal 
evidence  of  their  genuineness,  not  to  mention  the 
entire  absence  of  any  historical  or  other  proper 
testimony  in  their  favor.  The  grand  ethics  of 
the  Bible  standing  alone  would  be  more  convinc- 
ing of  their  divine  inspiration  without  the  mir- 
acles. The  power,  beauty,  and  truth  of  the 
inspired  teachings  do  not  depend  at  all  upon  the 
legendary  miracles,  and  the  ethics  are  not  neces- 
sarily connected  with  them.  Nor,  on  the  other 
hand,  should  the  inspired  teachings  be  impaired 
in  authority  by  historical  inaccuracies  or  weak 
and  trivial  miraculous  legends. 

Some  miracles,  such  as  the  burning  of  the  un- 
consumed  bush  in  the  desert  of  Midian,  out  of 

151 


152  Evolution  of  Religions 

the  midst  of  which  God  spoke  to  Moses,  the  ten 
plagues  of  Egypt,  the  passages  of  the  Red  Sea 
and  of  the  river  Jordan  by  the  IsraeHtes,  the 
cloud  behind  them  in  their  marches  by  day  and 
the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  which  are  said  to  have 
followed  them  during  their  forty  years'  wander- 
ings in  the  deserts  of  Arabia,  the  story  of  Shad- 
rach,  Meshach,  and  Abednego  walking  with  the 
Son  of  God  in  Nebuchadnezzar's  sevenfold 
heated  furnace;  of  the  mysterious  handwriting, 
his  own  and  his  empire's  doom  on  the  walls  of 
his  banqueting  hall  during  Belshazzar's  baccha- 
nalian feast ;  of  the  raising  from  death  of  Lazarus 
and  of  Jarius'  daughter,  and  the  resurrection  and 
ascension  of  Jesus,  these  and  many  other  occur- 
rences narrated  in  the  Bible  are  grand  and  won- 
derful miracles,  if  not  myths  and  legendary 
stories,  and  we  might  well  suppose  appropriate 
manifestations  of  omnipotent  power,  and  from 
their  character  might  furnish  internal  support  to 
general  biblical  authenticity  and  inspiration. 
The  Edenic  drama,  however,  the  story  of  Moses' 
and  the  Egyptian  magicians'  rods  turning  into 
serpents  when  thrown  down  before  King  Pharaoh ; 
and  Moses'  serpents,  then  swallowing  the  others ; 
the  story  of  Balaam  and  the  ass,  of  the  sun  and 
moon  standing  still  for  a  whole  day  at  the  com- 
mand of  Joshua,  of  Samson  and  the  three  hund- 
red foxes,  of  Saul  and  the  witch  of  Endor,  and 
other  supematurals  which  might  be  referred  to, 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      153 

do  not  from  their  character  add  any  strength 
whatever  to  bibhcal  authenticity,  but  being  pub- 
lished and  held  as  equally  true  among  believers 
with  all  other  miraculous  narratives,  tend  strongly 
to  impair  the  credibility  of  all. 

It  is  idle,  as  Renan  in  his  "Life  of  Christ" 
justly  says,  "to  claim  in  view  of  such  incredible 
Bible  stories,  and  of  the  vast  multitude  of  other 
legendary  and  fabulous  stories  which  aboimd  in 
books  of  our  o^^T^  and  of  other  religions,  and 
which  equally  with  the  Hebrew  and  Christian 
miracles  have  been  implicitly  believed  in  for  ages 
by  myriads  of  people  of  all  religions,  that  evi- 
dence suflficient  to  sustain  ordinary  historical  facts 
should  be  considered  sufficient  to  prove  miracles." 
Some  ordinary  historic  statements  are  believed 
merely  upon  the  statements  of  reliable  histori- 
ans, ancient  and  modem,  but  miracles  cannot 
be  proved  in  such  way.  We  believe  in  the  divine 
inspiration  of  all  the  messages  of  holiness,  mercy, 
and  humanity,  which  are  found  in  our  Bible,  as 
well  as  in  the  bibles  of  all  religions,  and  we  be- 
lieve so  upon  the  authority  of  our  Bible,  which 
says  that  "from  God  cometh  every  good  and 
perfect  gift." 

Such  teachings,  like  axioms  in  geometry,  prove 
themselves  to  be  from  deity,  but  supernatural 
reversions,  changes,  suspensions,  or  abrogations 
of  the  divine  laws  of  nature,  which  constitute 
miracles,  cannot  prove  themselves.     They  must 


154  Evolution  of  Religions 

be  proven  as  all  other  historical  facts.  Apart 
from  the  stories  themselves,  as  they  are  found  in 
our  Bible  and  in  the  sacred  books  of  other  re- 
ligions, there  is  virtually  no  proof  of  miracles 
existing.  Bible  histories,  like  other  reliable  an- 
cient histories,  are  sufficiently  trustworthy  to 
authenticate  of  themselves  many  natural  histori- 
cal facts,  but  they  cannot  alone  give  credence 
to  supernatural  narratives. 

Josephus,  in  his  books  of  Jewish  antiquities, 
merely  follows  Bible  history  down  to  the  return 
of  the  exiles  from  Babylon  and  the  rebuilding  of 
the  second  temple,  and  his  stories  of  miraculous 
events  are  merely  copied  from  the  Bible,  with 
some  variations  from  our  present  versions,  prob- 
ably owing  to  interpolations,  differences  in 
translations,  etc.  So  Herodotus,  the  Greek, 
Manetho,  the  Egyptian,  Berosus,  the  Chaldean, 
and  other  pagan  historians  who  wrote  anything 
of  the  Israelites,  only  repeated  what  they  obtained 
from  traditions  or  from  ancient  Hebrew  w^ritings. 
Really  there  exists  no  corroboration  whatever  of 
any  biblical  miracles  in  any  histories  of  Egyp- 
tians, Assyrians,  Chaldeans,  Persians,  Greeks,  or 
any  other  surrounding  nations,  and  very  slight 
corroborations  of  even  ancient  Hebrew  secular 
history.  Such  as  there  is,  and  it  is  generally  un- 
important, has  been  found  in  Egyptian  pyra- 
mids, temples,  and  mummy  sarcophagi,  of  kings, 
and  in  the  debris  of  ruins  of  Nineveh,  Asshur, 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      155 

and  Babylon.  So  that,  we  may  say,  that  of 
historical  or  monumental  corroborations  of  bib- 
lical miracles,  there  are  none  whatever  either 
Jewish  or  Gentile.  The  alleged  corroborations, 
contemporary  or  otherwise,  of  any  miracles  of 
other  religions,  and  of  the  innumerable  Christian 
miracles  of  saints  and  martyrs  of  the  dark  and 
mediaeval  ages,  are  entirely  imreliable  and  worth- 
less, and  so  regarded  by  all  good  scholars  and 
trustworthy  historians,  whatever  may  be  their 
religious  beliefs.  We  shall  now,  in  addition  to 
previous  comments  herein,  refer  to  some  of  the 
Bible  miracles  which  we  consider  as  Apocryphal 
and  mythical  or  legendary,  as  also  to  some  mat- 
ters of  merely  secular  Bible  history,  insufficiently 
authenticated.  Generally  Bible  history,  until  it 
runs  back  into  the  very  early  years  of  time,  is 
reliable.  As  this  is  not  in  any  sense  a  Bible  his- 
tory or  commentary,  but  only  a  consideration  of 
its  most  important  matters  of  miracles  and  doc- 
trines, the  things  we  shall  review,  instead  of  being 
taken  up  consecutively,  are  found  here  and  there 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  are  used  as  they  seem  most 
appropriate  for  our  purposes. 

There  are  inconsistencies  in  the  Bible.  Why 
should  God,  in  whom  there  is  no  "inconsistency, 
variableness,  or  shadow  of  turning,"  harden 
Pharaoh's  heart,  as  we  are  told  He  did  against 
the  terrible  w^amings  of  the  great  plagues,  and 
then  pimish  him  and  his  people  for  not  letting 


156  Evolution  of  Religions 

the  Israelites  go  out  of  Egypt?  According  to 
Exodus,  God  induced  Pharaoh  not  to  let  them 
go.  Is  not  this  charging  God  with  duplicity? 
We  know  it  cannot  be.  God  cannot  do  so.  Nor 
could  He  have  sent  one  of  His  angels  to  go 
and  put  a  lying  spirit  in  the  mouth  of  Ahab's 
prophets/  so  as  to  entice  him  to  go  to  battle  with 
the  Syrians  at  Ramoth  Gilead,  that  his  army 
'might  be  defeated  and  himself  killed. 

Did  the  Heavenly  Father  literally  order  the 
extermination  of  the  petty  tribes  of  the  Canaan- 
ites,  men,  women,  and  little  children,  with  the 
besom  of  destruction  in  their  ancient  homes 
surrounded  with  the  vines  and  fig-trees  which 
they  had  planted,  merely  that  the  ruthless  in- 
vaders might  appropriate  them  to  their  own  use? 
So  Moses,  or  whoever  wrote  the  Pentateuch, 
teaches!  And  so  Joshua  teaches!  What  harm 
or  wrong  had  they  done  their  despoilers  and 
murderers?  None  whatever.  But  it  is  said 
they  were  idolaters  and  God  wanted  them 
destroyed.  Perhaps  so.  But  their  innocent 
children  might  have  been  saved  and  brought  up 
differently.  And  their  conquerors  were  also 
most  of  the  time  idolaters,  especially  after  the 
conquest  of  Canaan,  notwithstanding  the  teach- 
ings of  Moses  and  the  divine  laws.  Doubtless, 
as  the  history  tells,  the  most  of  the  Canaanites 
were  exterminated,  but  we  opine  only  under  the 

*  Second  Chronicles,  ch.  xviii,  verse  20. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      157 

same  old  warrant  of  ambition,  greed,  and  lust  of 
conquest,  under  which  Cambyses,  Alexander, 
Cassar,  Attila,  Genghis  Khan,  Timour,  Cortez, 
Pizarro,  Napoleon,  and  other  conquerors  deluged 
the  earth  in  blood.  The  Mosaic  laws,  civil  and 
criminal,  compose  a  code  of  laws,  wonderful  and 
advanced  in  humanity  for  that  early  age. 

It  forms  the  basis  of  the  laws  of  most  civilized 
nations,  and  so  far  as  its  subject  matters  extend, 
was  mostly  good.  Yet,  though  Moses  proclaimed 
all  those  laws,  without  exception,  as  coming 
directly  from  God,  there  arc  in  that  code,  judged 
by  the  standard  of  true  morals  and  the  Decalogue, 
some  monstrous  wrongs  permitted,  especially  in 
reference  to  slavery,  polygamy,  divorces,  and 
social  morals.  Slavery  was  allowed,  and  slaves 
were  permitted  to  be  captured  in  war  and 
bought  and  sold,  not  only  of  foreign  peoples, 
but  also  of  their  o^vn  kinsmen,  Israelites.  Men 
were  permitted  to  have  plural  wives  without  any 
limit  as  to  numbers,  and  they  were  also  authorized 
to  put  away  and  divorce  their  wives  at  pleasure, 
no  matter  how  many  children  they  may  have 
borne  them  or  how  old  they  were.  Did  God 
really  authorize  such  social  wrongs?  It  is  hard 
to  believe  it.     We  cannot  believe  it. 

The  Bible  in  that  is  untrue  when  it  says  He  did. 
Jesus  did  not  believe  it,  for  He  said  that  Moses, 
not  God,  on  account  of  the  hardness  of  the  hearts 
of    the    Israelites    permitted    divorces    for    any 


158  Evolution  of  Religions 

cause,  but  that  from  the  beginning  it  was  not  so, 
tacitly  thus  declaring  that  although  such  was  the 
Mosaic  law,  it  was  not  the  law  given  by  God; 
thus  Himself  discrediting  Scripture.  The  Savior 
made  no  special  condemnation  of  slavery  and 
polygamy,  possibly  because  those  crimes  were  not 
brought  to  His  attention.  It  is  folly  to  teach 
that  God  sanctioned  or  gave  such  immoral  and 
unjust  laws,  and  if  He  did  not,  then  so  much  of 
Scriptures  is  untrue,  and  plenary  inspiration  is  at 
once  discredited.  "The  greater  part  of  the  legis- 
lation of  the  Mosaic  code  was  superseded  once  for 
all  by  Jesus."  *  And  yet  Jesus  is  reported  as  saying : 
"  Think  not  that  I  am  come  to  destroy  the  law  or 
the  prophets.  I  am  come  not  to  destroy,  but  to 
fulfill.  For  verily,  I  say  unto  you,  till  heaven 
and  earth  pass  away,  one  jot  or  one  tittle  shall  in 
no  wise  pass  away  from  the  law,  till  all  things  be 
fulfilled."^ 

Evidently  Jesus'  language  was  not  correctly 
reported  by  the  evangelists,  or  else  by  the  "law 
and  the  prophets  and  all  things,"  He  merely  meant 
only  the  moral  law.  He  did  not  mean  the  sac- 
rificial and  ceremonial  laws,  for  He  paid  little 
attention  to  them,  and  they  passed  away  forever 
when  the  last  temple  was  destroyed,  and  no 
descendant    of    David    was    then    sitting    upon 

»  Dr.  Briggs,  "The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  p. 
289.     Appendix. 

*  Matthew,  oh.  v,  verses  17-18. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      159 

Judah's  throne.  Nor  did  He  mean  the  predictions 
of  the  prophets,  for  many  of  them  have  been 
imfulfilled.  "If  we  insist  upon  the  fulfillment 
of  the  details  of  the  predictive  prophecy  of  the 
Old  Testament,  many  of  those  predictions  have 
been  reversed  by  history."  ^ 

Was  it  the  God  whom  we  worship,  or  was  it 
only  Israel's  God,  who  said  "that  if  a  man  smite 
his  serv^ant  or  his  ser^'ing  maid  with  a  rod,  and  he 
die  under  his  hand,  he  shall  be  punished.  Not- 
withstanding, if  he  live  a  day  or  two,  he  shall  not 
be  punished  because  the  slave  was  his  property"  ?  ^ 
Perhaps,  moreover,  the  poor  mangled  slave  may 
not  have  been  a  stranger  of  other  race  or  color, 
but  a  kinsman  Hebrew!  Did  God  really,  as 
Moses  says  He  did,  command,  that  if  a  man 
seduced  a  bondmaiden  who  was  betrothed  to 
another  man,  the  maiden  should  be  flogged  for 
her  sin,  but  because  she  was  a  slave,  the  vile 
seducer  could  make  a  petty  sacrifice  at  a  trifling 
cost,  and  go  unpunished?'  Surely  not  the  God 
we  worship !  We  will  not  believe  that  He  gave 
such  a  law.  No  such  immoral  and  barbarous 
law  can  be  found  in  the  Confucian  Analects,  the 
Zend  Avesta,  the  Vedas,  the  Tri  Pitakas,  or  the 
Koran. 

*  Dr.  Briggs,  "The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  p. 
286.     Appendix. 

'  Exodus,  ch.  xxi,  verse  21. 

'  Leviticus,  ch.  xix,  verses  20,  21,  22. 


i6o  Evolution  of  Religions 

The  statement  in  the  Bible  that  such  laws 
were  proclaimed  by  God  through  Moses,  is  ipso 
facto  proof  that  the  statement  is  iintrue,  and 
that  so  much  of  the  text,  at  least,  is  anything  but 
inspired.  And  the  immoral  inference  from  such 
law,  publicly  annoimced  as  it  purports  to  have 
been,  is  logically  that  had  not  the  slave  maiden 
been  betrothed,  the  sexual  intercourse  with  her 
as  a  slave  would  not  have  been  wrong,  or  at  least 
have  merited  or  received  no  pimishment  for  either 
one.  Did  God  order  through  Moses,  as  we  are 
told  He  did,  specifically,  all  the  petty  details 
of  the  minutiae  of  the  Hebrew  sacrificial  worship, 
of  the  garments  of  the  priests,  of  the  ribbons, 
fringes,  and  other  ornaments  of  the  curtains  of 
the  Shekinah,  of  the  rings,  bolts,  and  nails 
therefor,  and  of  the  trifling  arrangements  for 
slaughter  and  sacrifices  of  bulls,  heifers,  sheep, 
goats,  pigeons,  and  doves?  Truly  the  Lord  was 
concerning  Himself  de  minimis.  Sacrifices  to  be 
made,  in  order,  as  proclaimed,  that  through 
the  reeking  blood  and  the  hot  flames  from  the 
burning  flesh  of  the  victims  on  the  sacrificial 
altar,  an  atonement  or  expiation  for  the  sins  of 
the  people  might  be  made  by  propitiating  God 
through  the  "sweet  savor,"  arising  from  the 
sacrificial  offerings !  What  an  occupation  for  the 
God  of  the  universe  to  be  engaged  in !  What  be- 
sotted worship !  A  worship  probably  suited  to  the 
human  conceptions  of  a  deity  who  would  devise  it. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     i6i 

Does  anybody,  Jew  or  Gentile,  unless  infatuated 
with  the  old  forms  and  beliefs,  and  supinely 
following  them,  now  believe  that  God  ever 
ordained  such  sacrifices,  or  that  such  sacrifices 
now  or  ever  could  in  God's  economy,  really  atone 
for  sins?  Or  that  such  bloody,  bestial  offerings 
were  types  of  the  Savior's  future  crucifixion,  as 
orthodoxy  teaches?  Or  were  indeed  types  of 
anything  but  of  the  superstition,  ignorance,  and 
barbarism  of  the  priests,  and  the  people  who 
performed  such  rites  of  worship  ?  The  idea  of  the 
Almighty  who  "sitteth  upon  the  circle  of  the 
imiverse  and  ruleth  over  all"  enjoying,  and  being 
appeased,  or  being  influenced  in  any  way  by  a 
"sweet  savor,"  arising  not  from  the  delicious 
fragrance  of  odorous  flowers  or  of  burning  incense, 
which  supposedly  might  be  agreeable  to  Him,  but 
from  the  fumes  of  reeking  blood  and  burning 
flesh  of  the  poor  animals  slaughtered  for  sacrifices ! 
The  thought  is  disgusting!  All  refined  and 
humane  minds,  one  would  think,  would  instinc- 
tively revolt  from  such  an  association  of  repulsive 
ideas.  A  great  many  thousands  of  beasts  and 
birds  were  often  slaughtered  in  the  grounds  of  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem  in  one  day,  at  the  time  of 
the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  and  other  great  occasions, 
and  the  grounds  of  the  Temple  were  turned  into 
market  places  for  buying  and  selling  the  animals, 
as  well  as  into  shambles  for  wholesale  slaughter. 
Is   it   conceivable   that   God   would   suspend   or 


i62  Evolution  of  Religions 

revoke  nature's  eternal  laws  and  work  miracles, 
sometimes  on  very  ordinary  occasions,  as  we  are 
taught,  for  the  especial  benefit  and  encourage- 
ment in  their  folly,  of  the  ignorant  and  besotted 
semi-barbarians  who  could  enjoy  such  mummeries, 
and  call  them  worship  of  God  ?  Rather,  methinks. 
He  might  have  worked  miracles  to  enlighten 
their  minds  and  win  them  from  such  sacrificial 
abominations. 

We  are  often  told  by  divines  who  gloss  over 
such  things  in  the  Bible,  in  their  sermons  and 
writings,  that  "  a  glory  gilds  all  the  sacred  pages," 
but  such  instances  as  above  referred  to,  of  im- 
just  laws,  stupid  miracles,  and  heathenish  wor- 
ship, as  well  as  many  other  blemishes  which 
might  be  noted,  sadly  darken  many  pages  of  the 
Bible.  In  fact,  few  of  the  biblical  books  except- 
ing the  Proverbs,  inspired  Psalms,  the  Prophe- 
cies, and  some  of  the  Epistles  are  free  from 
blemishes.  Some  of  the  prophetic  teachings,  it 
is  true,  represent  God  with  human  infirmities  and 
passions,  but  that  is  merely  adapting  their  teach- 
ings to  the  capacities  of  their  hearers  or  readers. 
The  vulgar  opening  of  Hosea's  book,  with  his 
"wife  of  whoredoms  and  children  of  whore- 
doms," is  not  very  attractive.  Many  Christian 
ministers  and  Jewish  priests,  nay  most  of  them, 
are  not  honest  with  their  people,  and  do  not  ex- 
pound to  them  the  whole  truth,  but  conceal  or 
gloss  over  or    give  some  sublimated  or  mystical 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles      163 

exposition  to  all  the  dark  features  of  old  Bible 
story. 

Better  the  sale  for  gold,  of  indulgences  and 
forgiveness  and  absolution  for  sins,  carried  on  by 
the  priests  of  Rome  in  the  Dark  Ages,  than  the 
debasing  Mosaic  sacrifices.  Were  they  indeed 
anything  more  than  the  systems  of  worship  of 
the  surrounding  pagan  nations  adopted  by  the 
Israelites  and  ingrafted  by  them  upon  the  Zo- 
roastrian  worship  of  one  God  instead  of  the 
heathen  worship  of  many  gods  ?  And  really  only 
as  it  taught  monotheism,  and  naturally,  there- 
fore, leading  to  higher  ideals,  running  through 
the  whole  system,  and  better  laws,  civil,  criminal, 
and  ecclesiastical,  was  Mosaic  sacrificial  worship 
much  superior  to  the  Egyptian,  Assyrian,  or  Gre- 
cian forms  of  worship,  as  it  was  inferior  to  the 
Zoroastrian  worship  of  Central  Asia,  which  had 
no  sacrificial  mummeries,  though  that  religion 
was  perhaps  one  thousand  years  older  than  the 
Mosaic.  It  was  the  oldest  and  original  mono- 
theism of  earth,  so  far  as  we  know.  No!  Such 
absurd  sacrificial  worship  never  came  from  God, 
only  as  all  things  of  earth  may  be  parts  or  seg- 
ments of  the  circle  of  His  providence  and  econo- 
mies, of  the  social  and  religious  evolutions  which 
He  permits  and  guides. 

The  statement  that  the  clothes  and  shoes  of 
the  Israelites  in  their  forty  years'  wanderings  in 
the  Arabian  deserts  never  grew  old  or  worn  out, 


i64  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  the  story  of  Balaam  and  the  ass  are  only  on 
a  par  with  many  of  the  Oriental  fables  in  the 
"Arabian  Nights."  How  they  ever  got  into  the 
Pentateuch  is  a  mystery.  And  how  they  can 
now  be  believed  by  intelligent  Jews,  Christians, 
and  Mohammedans  is  a  still  greater  mystery. 
Must  we  believe  merely  because  it  is  in  the  pages 
of  Exodus,  not  only  that  the  sandals  and  clothes 
of  the  grown  persons  never  got  frayed  or  torn 
during  the  forty  years  of  their  wanderings,  but 
also  that  new  clothes  grew  or  were  furnished  by 
angel  hands,  as  children  were  born,  and  that 
their  clothes  continued  growing  and  expanding 
on  their  bodies  as  they  grew  up  to  maturity?  A 
whole  generation,  we  are  told,  passed  away  and 
another  grew  up  in  the  mountains,  vales,  and 
deserts  during  those  forty  years.  What  non- 
sense will  not  and  have  not  mankind  believed 
under  the  teachings  of  priestcraft  and  the  in- 
fluences of  religious  delusions !  It  must  require  an 
amazing  amount  of  credulity  to  believe  such 
things  without  a  tittle  of  evidence,  excepting  that 
"  it  is  so  written,"  or  to  believe  as  a  literal  fact  the 
poetic  fable  or  allegory  that  the  "sun  stood  still 
upon  Gibeon  and  the  moon  in  the  vale  of  Aijalon 
and  hastened  not  to  go  down  for  a  whole  day"  at 
the  command  of  Joshua,  in  order  that  one  petty 
nation  of  semibarbarians  might  have  sufficient 
light  to  exterminate  another.  Where  is  to  be 
found,  or  can  be  produced  by  those  who  believe  it 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     165 

as  a  real  fact,  any  corroborating  historical  and 
astronomical  testimony  of  such  an  amazing  event 
as  there  needs  must  have  been,  at  least  in  astro- 
nomical reckonings,  if  true  ?  There  is  not  on  earth 
a  scintilla  of  such  evidence.  Josephus  corrobo- 
rated it,  but  his  statement,  like  his  corroboration 
of  other  Bible  miracles,  comes  from  the  original 
story  in  Joshua,  and  hence  is  but  a  repetition  of 
it.  But  really  the  environment  and  language  of 
the  story  show  it  to  be  merely  an  extravagant 
poetic  embellishment  or  legend.  How  did  the 
Danite  Hercules,  Samson,  manage  by  himself  to 
collect  three  hundred  foxes  and  tie  together  and 
set  fire  to  the  tails  of  so  many,  and  thus  sending 
them  loose,  bum  up  the  grain  and  vineyards  of  the 
Philistines  ?  *  Had  the  writer  of  the  story  been 
reading  the  exploits  of  the  fabled  Grecian  Her- 
cules? ^lust  we  perforce  also  believe  the  story 
of  the  fountain  of  water,  to  slake  his  thirst  gush- 
ing out  of  the  jaw  bone  of  an  ass  with  which  he 
had  slain  one  thousand  Philistines?  That  jaw 
bone  must  have  been  made  of  steel,  or  else  in  the 
slaughter  of  so  many  armed  enemies  it  would 
have  been  early  crushed  into  fragments.  And 
whence  came  the  water  supply  of  the  foimtain,  as 
it  had  no  connection  with  the  earth?  A  much 
prettier  finale  for  the  story  of  the  exhausting  work 
of  the  slaughter  of  one  thousand  Philistines  had 
been  the  miraculous  gushing  of  a  spring  by  the 

*  Judges,  chap,  xv,  verses  4  and  5. 


i66  Evolution  of  Religions 

wayside  to  slake   the  thirst  of  the  tired  Danite 
champion. 

Samson  was  the  Hebrew  Hercules.  All  ancient 
peoples  had  their  heroes  who  performed  miracu- 
lous prodigies  of  bravery,  strength,  and  agility, 
and  were  made  demigods.  We  need  but  to 
refer  without  special  comment  to  the  stories  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead  man  in  Second  Kings,  ^ 
when  his  corpse  was  let  down  into  the  tomb  of  the 
prophet  Elisha  and  came  in  contact  with  his 
bones;  of  the  witch  of  Endor,  and  Saul,  king  of 
Israel,  holding  converse  with  the  ghost  of  the 
dead  prophet,  Samuel,  whom  she  had  called  up 
and  away  from  his  distant  tomb  into  that  lone 
forest  at  the  bidding  of  Saul.  Would  God  so  use 
a  proscribed  witch,  all  of  which  sisterhood  He  had 
ordered  Saul  to  destroy  for  their  sorceries?  Of 
the  lost  ax  rising  from  the  bottom  of  a  river  and 
floating  on  top  of  the  stream  at  the  behest  of  the 
prophet  Elisha,  thus  annulling  or  suspending  for  a 
time  the  universal  law  of  gravitation  for  so  trifling 
a  matter  as  the  recovery  of  the  ax  which  had 
slipped  from  its  helve  into  the  river  ?  As  miracles 
these  instances  are  now  "back  numbers,"  if  we 
may  so  express  the  changed  beliefs  of  most  men. 
These  are  one  and  all,  evidently  with  many  other 
miracles  we  might  refer  to,  myths,  fables,  or  ex- 
travagant poetic  fictions,  and  originally  so  written, 
without  a  particle  of  corroborating  evidence,  as 

^  Second  Kings,  chap,  xiii,  verse  21. 


Internal  Evidence  of  Miracles     167 

facts,  externally  or  internally,  from  the  character 
of  the  miracles. 

The  internal  attestation  from  the  nature  of  the 
miraculous  environments  is  unfavorable  to  them. 
Only  the  very  ignorant,  very  credulous,  and 
bigoted,  believe  such  stories  any  more.  Those 
cited,  and  many  other  Bible  legends  which  might 
be  referred  to,  can  add  no  conviction,  inter  se,  as  to 
the  general  authenticity  of  miracles,  or  even  of 
biblical  inspiration,  but  rather  tend  to  impair 
belief  in  both.  No  Bible  miracles  have  any  cor- 
roborating historical  support  whatever.  The 
story  of  Jonah  and  the  whale,  and  of  the  miracu- 
lous vine  which  grew  up  over  him  in  a  day  to 
shelter  him  from  the  sun,  is  all  certainly  an  alle- 
gorical fiction  and  not  a  story  of  supernatural 
facts,  written  perhaps  by  some  gifted  and  liberal 
Jew  during  the  exile,  or  afterwards,  to  illustrate 
the  national  selfishness,  exclusiveness,  and  illiber- 
ality  of  his  race,  and  teaching  beautifully  the  doc- 
trine of  the  \iniversal  fatherhood  of  God,  His  love 
for  all  men,  and  merciful  readiness  to  forgive  all 
who  genuinely  repent  of  sins.  No  atonement  even 
intimated.  It  is  to  our  conception  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  of  ancient  poems,  for  poem  it  is, 
and  should  be  rendered  into  meter,  illustrating  in 
most  forcible  language  the  same  grand  truths  as 
the  "  Gentle  Portia"  in  the  "Merchant  of  Venice" 
teaches  the  cruel,  selfish,  bigoted,  and  avaricious 
Shylock.     We  think  it  clearly  shows  on  its  face 


i68  Evolution  of  Religions 

that  it  was  written  allegorically  to  enunciate  and 
impress  upon  all  men,  and  especially  all  Jews, 
those  great  moral  and  social  truths,  and  not  merely 
as  a  literal  supernatural  story,  though  for  ages  the 
story  of  Jonah's  whale  and  gourd  have  been  be- 
lieved and  defended  by  Christians,  though  not  very 
strongly  by  Jews,  as  genuinely  miraculous. 

When  we  come  to  the  consideration  of  New 
Testament  miracles,  we  find  that  none  of  them, 
outside  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts,  have  any  corro- 
borating contemporary  evidence  or  historical  sup- 
port. No  references  are  made  to  them  in  the 
various  Epistles.  The  omission  is  extraordinary 
and  goes  to  show  that  the  Gospels  and  Acts,  as  we 
now  have  them,  were  later  productions.  Some  of 
them  are  of  such  importance  and  character  as, 
considered  with  reference  only  as  to  character  and 
surroimdings,  might  give  internal  support  to  the 
theory  of  inspiration  of  these  teachings.  But 
some  of  them  by  their  intrinsic  character  and  en- 
vironments, we  think,  have  a  contrary  influence. 
Of  this  latter  class  of  supernatural  stories,  —  and 
there  are  many  such,  —  let  us  consider  as  first  and 
most  important  the  story  of  the  temptation  in 
Matthew  ^  and  Luke.  It  is  only  found  in  those 
two  Gospels. 

*  Matthew,  chap,  xvi;  Luke,  chap.  iv. 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    STORY    OF    JESUS*    TEMPTATION 

IN  order  to  comprehend  the  story  clearly  in  all 
its  bearings,  one  should  have  a  fixed  opinion 
of  or  belief  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  to  His  nature  and 
individuality. 

First.  Was  He  God,  the  second  person  of  three 
persons  in  the  Trinity  of  Godhead,  divine,  un- 
created, the  three  persons  in  one  being,  distinct 
but  not  separate?  If  so,  then,  though  incompre- 
hensibly and  mysteriously  conceived  by  and  bom 
of  Mary,  the  Jewess,  we  affirm  He  was  only  the 
semblance  of  man  and  was  to  all  intents  and  pur- 
poses Almighty  God. 

Second.  Was  Jesus  so  bom  merely  an  incarna- 
tion or  manifestation  of  God  in  human  form?  If 
so,  He  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  God  and  not 
man.  His  himianity  and  deity  were  one  and  in- 
separable, while  such  existence  and  manifestation 
continued.  He  was  only  God  and  not  man  in  any 
sense  during  such  incarnation,  and  the  mystic  con- 
ception of  the  Divine  Trinity  is  only  a  human 
fantasy. 

Third.  If  not  God  only,  in  the  incomprehen- 
sible Trinity,  or  God  incarnated  for  a  time  in  hu- 

169 


170  Evolution  of  Religions 

manity,  then  Jesus,  whether  bom  from  theo- 
phanic  conception  of  His  mother,  or  really  as  the 
son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  was  only  a  human  being. 
In  either  case,  and  especially  if  bom  of  theophanic 
conception.  He  was  as  God  willed.  His  Son,  and  in 
the  latter  case  divinely  human  with  God  —  like 
faculties  and  possibilities,  but  only  human  still, 
and  never  God,  but  only  man. 

These  are  the  only  three  conceivable  characters 
Jesus  Christ  in  humanity  could  bear,  or  in  which 
rationally  we  can  comprehend  Him.  Of  course 
we  cannot  comprehend  Him  in  the  Trinity,  but  we 
can  know,  however  mysterious  the  relations,  that 
as  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,  not  as  inter- 
changeable characters,  for  if  interchangeable, 
then  there  is  no  Trinity,  that  He  was  and  must  al- 
ways be  only  God.  God  cannot  cease  to  exist  or 
divest  Himself  of  deity,  and  hence  if  Jesus  were 
God  He  was  inseparably  so.  If  Jesus  was  God 
manifested  in  human  form  and  flesh.  He  was 
only  God,  and  there  is  nor  can  be  no  Trinity  of 
persons  in  such  relation.  As  a  human  being, 
however,  conceived  and  bom,  though  possibly  en- 
dowed with  almost  Godlike  powers  and  capacities, 
Jesus  could  only  be  a  human  being.  These  three 
propositions,  we  think,  are  Irrefutable  and  cannot 
be  controverted  successfully.  Now  if  Jesus  were 
God,  as  Trinitarians  claim,  He  could  not  at  one 
time  be  God,  and  at  another  time  only  man,  or 
partly  God  and  partly  man.     If  divinity  ceased  in 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation      171 

Him,  or  left  Him  at  any  time,  He  could  only  be 
man,  though  he  might  be  all  His  life  preeminently 
the  Son  of  God,  and  gifted,  as  I  believe  He  was 
more  than  any  other  mortal,  with  God's  spirit  and 
presence.  But  we  state  it  as  an  axiomatic  truth 
that  God  is  and  always  must  be  God,  whether  in  a 
Trinity  or  alone,  or  in  any  incarnation,  in  any 
form  of  being. 

God  could  not  die  on  the  cross,  and  when  Jesus 
died  there.  He  died  as  a  man.  If  God  were  merely 
manifested  in  Jesus  as  His  Son,  in  any  sense, 
though  not  incarnated,  the  Father  would  be  yet 
absolutely  and  imchangeably  God,  and  Jesus 
would  not  be  God.  But  as  God  and  the  logical 
consequences  of  the  orthodox  creed  must  be  ac- 
cepted in  all  their  bearings,  Jesus  must  always 
have  been  divine,  and  could  not  —  it  would  be  in- 
conceivable that  He  could  —  divest  Himself  of  any 
attributes  of  deity.  Hence  how  could  Jesus  as 
God  put  Himself  into  Satan's  hands,  or  in  his 
power,  to  be  tempted  of  him  and  to  be  subject  to 
his  diablerie  for  forty  days?  As  God,  what  could 
it  amount  to  if  He  did?  What  example  to  man, 
or  what  good  could  be  subserved?  Why  do  the 
evangelists  Mark  and  John  omit  to  say  anything 
about  Jesus'  temptation?  It  was  a  matter  of 
transcendent  importance,  if  literally  true,  and 
most  of  the  really  important  events  in  Jesus'  life 
were  recorded  by  each  evangelist.  If  Jesus  were 
only  human  (and  there  could  be  no  temptation,  nor 


172  Evolution  of  Religions 

could  it  avail  anything  if  he  were  not  merely  hu- 
man), how  could  Satan  take  Him  up  into  a  high 
mountain  and  show  Him,  excepting  in  a  meta- 
phorical sense,  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  world? 
There  were  no  mountains  in  Palestine  of  sufficient 
height  from  which  a  radius  of  more  than  fifty 
miles  of  the  surroimding  country  could  be  seen, 
and  only  so  much  of  the  then  Herodian  Kingdom 
of  Judea  could  Jesus  probably  see,  and  He  could 
see  but  a  part  of  that  one  of  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth,  and  that  but  a  small  and  obscure  kingdom ! 
As  God,  Jesus  saw  and  knew  all  kingdoms  and 
empires,  for  all  were  His,  and  His  vision  extended 
not  only  throughout  the  earth  but  throughout  all 
the  universe. 

No  matter  what  the  mysteries  of  His  being,  as 
the  one  or  triune  God,  Jesus  was  only  God,  or  else 
only  man.  Was  the  one  God,  or  the  triune  God 
in  one,  or  only  one  man  being  tempted?  What 
temptation  ind  ed  would  it  be  to  offer  God,  or  the 
divine  Son  of  Him  who  created  and  owned  the 
imiverse,  who  was  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of 
lords,  the  dominions  and  kingdoms  of  this  world, 
when  Satan  who  made  the  offer  was  merely  a  sub- 
ject and  servant  of  God  and  had  nothing,  except- 
ing what  he  might  hold  by  sufferance,  to  give? 
Furthermore,  if  not  too  ludicrous  a  matter  to  dis- 
cuss, is  it  conceivable  that  Jesus  as  God,  or  as  the 
Divine  Son  of  God,  permitted  the  devil,  God's 
arch  enemy,  to  carry  Him  up  to  the  dizzy  pinnacle 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation       173 

of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  after  placing 
Him  in  that  ridiculous  position,  next  tempt  Him 
— that  is,  not  merely  ask  Jesus,  but  as  temptation 
is  defined,  ''solicit,  induce,  allure  Him,  get  Him  to 
weigh  and  consider  the  inducement,"  for  a  petty 
display  of  Jesus'  power — to  cast  Himself  headlong 
down  to  the  marble  pavement  of  the  holy  court 
below?  What  for?  CiU  bono?  Why,  to  sup- 
posedly gratify  Jesus'  vanity  by  such  a  display  of 
His  power,  really  in  his  acquiescence,  to  make 
Himself  a  serv^ant  of  Satan. 

Was  the  evil  one  thus  trying  to  dethrone  God  ? 
For  such,  according  to  orthodoxy,  must  have 
been  the  result  of  the  success  of  his  temptations. 
Doubtless,  of  course,  if  the  temptation  was  a  real 
incident,  Satan  sought  to  baffle  God  and  allure 
Jesus  from  His  service.  This  purpose  of  Satan 
the  story  clearly  shows.  Is  it  conceivable  he 
could  have  hoped  to  do  so  if  Jesus  were  one  of  the 
persons  of  the  Trinity  ?  —  and  the  context  clearly 
shows  Satan  knew  Jesus'  character  and  relation  to 
God,  and  that  that  character  was  son,  minister, 
and  messenger  of  God,  as  man.  We  are  told  else- 
where in  the  apostolic  writings  that  the  object  or 
purpose  of  Christ's  part  in  submitting  to  the  temp- 
tation was  to  make  it  an  example  to  His  followers, 
in  that  He  was  tempted  in  all  things  like  as  they 
would  be,  and  that  His  example  would  give  them 
strength  to  resist  temptation  as  He  did.  Now  as 
God,  or  as  one  of  the  persons  in  the  Trinity  in  the 


174  Evolution  of  Religions 

temptation,  there  could  be  no  force  or  merit  in 
the  example  of  Jesus  to  mortals  at  all.  It  would 
simply  be  comparing  the  omnipotence  of  Deity 
with  the  feebleness  of  human  childhood.  And  if 
Jesus  were  human  or  quasi-human,  with  divine 
qualities  and  gifts,  in  either  case  the  argument 
from  example  would  still  not  be  apropos,  be- 
cause Jesus  was,  as  Christians  all  believe,  in  His 
native  powers  and  resources,  if  not  really  divine, 
yet  imdoubtedly  the  greatest,  noblest,  and  best  of 
mankind,  strong  and  self-possessed,  panoplied  in 
love  and  supreme  trust  in  God,  and  so  immensely 
greater  and  better  than  His  fellow-men  in  every 
respect,  that  consequently  there  could  be  no 
benefit  of  example  in  a  tragedy  where  there  was 
almost  infinite  goodness  and  power  to  resist  temp- 
tation in  the  exemplar,  and  mere  human  ability, 
with  good  and  evil  always  contending  for  the 
mastery.,  in  doubtful  struggle  in  the  frail  creatures 
for  whom  the  example  was  given.  And  if  only  as 
an  example,  who  initiated  the  temptation,  Jesus 
or  Satan?  Did  Satan  initiate  it  for  such  ex- 
ample? Then  was  he  indeed  seeking  to  do  good? 
In  fact,  when  the  Apostles  represent  Jesus  as 
merely  an  exemplar  in  the  satanic  temptation, 
they  virtually  deny  His  divinity  and  the  basic 
principles  of  orthodoxy. 

Really,  the  story  of  the  temptation  is  not  sui 
generis  with  all  the  rest  of  Jesus'  life  and  teach- 
ings.   It  is  simply  a  legend  of  early  Christianity ;  a 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation      175 

product  of  the  amazing  superstition  and  fanaticism 
of  the  times,  and  so  put  into  the  two  Synoptic 
Gospels.  It  should  be  eliminated  from  them 
even  as  an  allegory,  because,  according  to  the 
tenets  of  orthodoxy,  if  Jesus  was  really  God,  it 
borders  on  the  profane  and  sacrilegious.  If  He 
was  only  a  man,  it  has  features  in  it  which  are  im- 
possible and  ridiculous.  The  story  should  be  rele- 
gated to  works  like  Rev.  Bernard  Peck's  Apocry- 
phal Life  of  Jesus,  before-mentioned,  as  one  of  that 
wonderful  compilation  of  early  Christian  super- 
stitions and  fables  believed  in  as  true  by  many 
Christians  for  centuries  during  the  early  and  Dark 
Ages,  but  now  only  exciting  our  wonder  and  curi- 
osity as  mementos  of  the  astonishing  and  al- 
most inconceivable  superstition  and  credulity  of 
ancient  times.  Jesus  Himself  discredited  the 
story  by  never  once  alluding  to  the  "  Great  Temp- 
tation" in  all  His  ministry  and  discourses.  Like 
the  visions  in  the  Book  of  Revelation  attributed 
to  the  apostle  John,  but  which  were  not  admitted 
into  the  New  Testament  canon  as  inspired  for 
several  centuries  after  they  were  written  and  in 
common  use,  practically  the  "Great  Temptation 
and  Revelations"  are  now  largely  regarded  as  alle- 
gories or  religious  fictions,  and  are  now  believed  in 
by  few  intelligent  thinking  people  as  realities. 
Mark  nor  John  do  not  in  their  Gospels  even  allude 
to  the  story  of  the  temptation.  Why  their 
silence   in   passing  unnoted   such   an   important 


176  Evolution  of  Religions 

event  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  if  true?  What  good 
ever  grew  out  of  the  legend  ?  As  a  sort  of  compan- 
ion piece  to  the  story  of  Eden  and  the  fall,  it 
whetted  and  gratified  the  fancy  of  the  Dark  Ages 
for  wonderful  mysteries  and  incomprehensible 
creeds,  and  furnished  the  bigots  Athanasius  and 
Augustine  a  basis  for  their  dogmas.  But  instead 
of  affording  any  internal  attestation,  cumulative 
or  isolated,  to  gospel  authenticity  or  inspiration, 
when  critically  examined  it  is  evidently  a  wholly 
absurd  and  irrational  myth  and  tends  to  discredit 
all  supernatural  stories. 

The  late  Bible  Revision  Committee  in  making 
up  the  Revised  Version  would  have  been  fully  jus- 
tified, and  performed  a  great  service  to  liberal 
Christianity,  by  expurgating  the  story  of  the  temp- 
tations from  the  two  Gospels  as  an  interpolation 
or  fanatical  legend.  Neither  internally  nor  ex- 
ternally is  there  a  scintilla  of  reason  or  evidence 
to  support  it  as  a  fact.  It  is  derogatory  to  God 
and  the  Savior.  On  less  ground  did  the  Revision 
Committee  expurgate  the  legend  of  the  Pool  of 
Bethesda  and  the  impotent  man,^  wherein  it  is 
stated  in  the  King  James  and  other  old  versions 
that  at  certain  periods  an  angel  came  down  from 
heaven  and  troubled  its  waters,  and  that  whoso- 
ever immediately  stepped  in  or  was  put  into  the 
pool  was  cured  of  whatever  disease  he  had.  And 
that  an  impotent  man  who  had  long  tried  to  get 

*  St.  John,  chap.  v. 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation     177 

into  the  pool  immediately  after  the  water  was  so 
troubled,  but  could  not,  was  there  immediately 
cured  by  Jesus  saying  imto  him,  "Rise,  take  up 
thy  bed  and  walk." 

The  revisionists  also  intimate  that  the  story  of 
the  woman  taken  in  adultery  and  brought  before 
Christ  is  an  interpolation.  Another  miracle  which 
the  revisionists  certainly  ought  to  have  expur- 
gated even  without  evidence  of  interpolation  is 
the  story  of  the  devils  cast  out  of  the  insane  man,* 
asking  and  obtaining  permission  of  Jesus  to  go  into 
a  herd  of  swine  feeding  nearby,  and  then  after  en- 
tering into  them,  driving  all  the  swine  into  the  Sea 
of  Galilee.  Were  the  devils  drowned  as  well  as  the 
swine  ?  They  certainly  ought  to  have  been !  Can 
any  sane  person  believe  that  God  would  or  did 
inspire  the  evangelist  to  write  such  a  story?  He 
could  only  know  it  to  be  a  fact  through  inspiration 
from  God.  It  might  well  have  been  presumed  by 
the  revisers  that  the  story  was  an  interpolation 
and  was  not  in  the  original  Gospel.  The  story 
might  well  do  for  a  companion  piece  to  the  fable  in 
Rev.  Pick's  book  of  Apocryphal  Miracles,  of  Jesus, 
when  a  child,  turning  some  boys,  who  offended 
Him  by  taunts  and  nicknames,  into  goats  and 
then  shortly  afterwards  at  the  intercession  of  His 
mother,  transforming  the  goats  into  boys  again. 

Jesus  we  believe  in  as  Son  of  God,  the  divine 
man  and  prophet,  peerless,  of  woman  bom,  and 

*  Matthew,  chap,  viii,  verse  22. 


178  Evolution  of  Religions 

though  humanly  and  really  the  son  of  Joseph  and 
Mary  his  wife,  divinely  created  and  inspired  for 
His  great  mission  of  pardon,  humanity,  liberty,  and 
truth  to  all  the  world ;  truly,  as  Renan  says,  the 
greatest,  best,  and  noblest  being  who  ever  lived  on 
earth,  and  worthily  the  Son  of  God.  Such  fables 
as  the  foregoing  legends  interwoven  into  the 
Gospels  only  obscure  His  glory.  Only  one  other 
created  being  can  we  compare  Him  with,  and  that 
was  the  great  and  mysterious  Melchizedek,  King 
of  Salem,*  priest  forever  and  Son  of  God,  like  Jesus 
Christ,  "who  was  without  father,  without  mother, 
without  descent,  having  neither  beginning  of  days 
nor  end  of  life."  ^  This  great  and  mysterious  king 
who  is  spoken  of  a  number  of  times  in  the  Bible 
without  much  information  being  given  about  him, 
and  who  was  an  associate  and  contemporary  of  the 
patriarch  Abraham,  was  most  likely  none  other 
than  the  great  prophet  Zoroaster,  who  lived  and 
taught  only  of  the  "  most  high  God  "  at  that  time, 
besides  being,  according  to  Persian  traditions,  a 
king.  The  difference  of  names  where  the  identity 
of  the  person  seems  the  same  does  not  amoimt  to 
much,  as  Moses  and  Abraham,  as  well  as  Zara- 
thustra  or  Zoroaster,  have  many  various  names  in 
the  histories  and  traditions  of  Canaan,  Egypt, 
Arabia,    and   Persia.     But   the    language,    titles, 

*  Genesis,  chap,  xiv,  verse  i8. 

^  Hebrews,  chap,  v,  verse  6,  and  chap,  vii,  verses  1-4  in- 
clusive. 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation      179 

styles,  and  descriptions  of  the  Bible  identify 
Melchizedek  with  Zoroaster  as  the  divinely  sent 
and  great  teacher  of  earth's  most  ancient  rehgion, 
and  also  as  king,  son,  priest,  and  prophet,  as  was 
Jesus  two  thousand  years  afterward,  of  the  one 
most  high  God.  The  singular  terms  in  which 
Melchizedek  is  spoken  of,  and  the  almost  impene- 
trable mystery  which  is  left  about  him  in  the 
Bible,  seem  to  closely  identify  him  with  the  Per- 
sian and  Chaldean  traditions  of  the  great  and  good 
Zoroaster,  who  was  said  by  ancient  Persian  legends 
to  have  been  taken  to  Heaven  and  had  interviews 
and  instructions  from  God  and  His  angels  before 
entering  upon  his  ministry  He  and  Jesus  Christ 
are  the  two  greatest  and  grandest  characters  on 
history's  pages,  and  if  Zoroaster  and  the  mysteri- 
ous Melchizedek  are  one  and  the  same,  then  he 
was  a  grand  compeer  of  the  great  Nazarene.  One 
of  our  great  secret  orders  perpetuates  the  name 
of  Jesus  in  its  rituals,  and  another  the  name  of 
Melchizedek  in  its  highest  and  final  password  and 
ritual. 

"  Hail,  patriarchs,  hail!     Behold  in  me 
The  Centre  of  your  mystic  ring, 
Your  password  through  eternity, 
Melchizedek,  your  priest  and  king." 

There  are  other  narratives  in  the  Bible  which 
from  want  of  harmony  with  just  and  elevated 
conception    of   deity,   and   on    account   of   their 


i8o  Evolution  of  Religions 

character  and  environments,  only  serve  to  illus- 
trate human  weakness  and  credulity,  rather  than 
help  sustain  bibUcal  authenticity  or  strengthen 
the  claim  for  its  plenary  inspiration.  These  in- 
stances will  readily  occur  from  our  point  of  view 
to  students  well  posted  in  the  sacred  text,  and 
need  not  be  specifically  referred  to.  And  there 
are  also  many  minor  differences  in  various  state- 
ments, such  as  the  conduct  of  the  malefactors 
who  were  crucified  with  Jesus, ^  and  also  as  to 
what  occurred  to  St.  Paul  in  the  theophany,  or 
divine  vision,  which  was  the  instrument  of  his 
conversion  on  his  journey  from  Jerusalem  to 
Damascus  for  the  purpose  of  persecuting  the 
followers  of  Christ,^  which  contradictions,  though 
of  course  of  small  importance,  squarely  conflict 
with  the  doctrine  of  inerrancy  in  all  Scriptures, 
because  of  errors  in  the  originals  or  because  of 
errors  in  translations.  But  we  will  pass  these 
instances  by  merely  with  this  brief  reference  to 
them,  and  will  only  note,  specially,  one  or  two 
more  very  prominent  historical  statements  in  the 
Bible  as  bearing  directly  on  the  question  of  in- 
ternal evidence  of  authenticity  and  plenary 
inspiration. 

In  the  Second  Book  of  Chronicles '  we  find  an 

*  Matthew,  chap,  xxvii,  verse  44,  and  Luke,  chap,  xxiii, 
verse  40. 

^  Acts,  chap.  X,  verse  7,  and  chap,  xxii,  verse  9. 
'  Second  Book  of  Chronicles,  chap.  xiii. 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation      i8i 

account  of  a  battle  between  the  armies  of  the 
petty  kingdoms  of  Judah  and  Israel,  or  the  ten 
tribes,  in  which  it  is  stated  that  the  army  of  King 
Jeroboam  of  Israel  was  defeated  with  a  loss  of 
half  a  million  of  his  chosen  soldiers  slain.  This  was 
about  9 5  7  B . c.  Now  if  the  statement  were  that  five 
hundred  thousand  of  Jeroboam's  men  had  been 
killed  and  wounded,  it  should  tax  human  credulity 
to  the  utmost,  but  the  language  is  "slain," 
"  killed,"  and  it  is  incredible.  The  narrative  does 
not  state  how  many  of  the  soldiers  of  Judah  and 
Benjamin  were  slain.  Probably  a  greater  propor- 
tion of  killed  to  woimded  occurred  in  the  conflicts  in 
ancient  times,  when  such  weapons  as  spears,  jave- 
lins, battle  axes,  and  swords  were  used  at  close 
quarters  and  men  fought  with  more  savage  fero- 
city than  in  civilized  warfare,  but  to  such  a  vast 
number  killed  there  would  probably  be  an  equal 
number  wounded.  Mind,  the  text  says  slain,  and 
if  that  is  inspired,  or  even  truthful  if  not  in- 
spired, it  can't  be  argued  that  it  means  killed  and 
woimded  both.  So  that  understood  as  it  reads,  the 
loss  on  the  side  of  Israel  alone  was  probably  one 
million  men  killed  and  wounded,  and  the  loss  on 
both  sides  of  one  million  five  himdred  thousand 
men  killed  and  wounded.  Now  the  whole  terri- 
tory of  both  kingdoms  did  not  comprise  at  that 
period  over  fifteen  thousand  square  miles,  as  most 
of  the  outside  territory  of  Edom,  Moab,  and  other 
regions  conquered  by  King  David  had  previously 


i82  Evolution   of   Religions 

revolted  and  regained  their  independence.     Much 
of  Canaan  was  mountainous  and  desert. 

The  population  of  the  tribes  of  Judah  and 
Benjamin  at  that  time,  including  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  was  no  doubt  equal  to  the  popula- 
tion of  the  other  ten  tribes,  and  the  aggregate 
population  of  both  kingdoms  was  not  probably 
over  two  million  two  hundred  and  twenty-five 
thousand.  Six  hundred  thousand  was  doubtless 
the  outside  number  of  available  soldiers  of  both 
kingdoms.  And  yet  we  have  in  this  historical 
statement  in  the  commonly  accepted  canonical 
Book  of  Chronicles,  a  half  million  of  the  one  army 
of  Israel  slain  in  one  battle,  with  a  probable  loss 
in  killed  and  woimded  on  both  sides,  according 
to  ordinary  calculations,  of  one  million  five  hun- 
dred thousand  men,  or  more  than  half  the  entire 
population  of  the  two  kingdoms,  estimating  one 
hundred  and  fifty  people  to  the  square  mile,  which 
is  a  large  estimate.  The  statement  of  the  num- 
ber killed  in  the  battle  is  absurd.  Any  argument 
as  to  its  credibility  would  be  simply  a  waste  of 
time,  as  much  so  indeed  as  it  would  have  been 
to  discuss  with  George  Rawlinson  his  belief  that 
actually  the  "sim  stood  still  upon  Gibeon  and 
the  moon  in  the  vale  of  Aijalon."  '  We  may  say, 
en  passant,  that  writers  upon  the  evidences  of 
Christianity  and  of  biblical  inspiration  gener- 
ally, by  affirming  the  literal  truths  of  all  super- 

*  Evidences  of  Christianity,  by  George  Rawlinson,  pp.  87, 
88. 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation      183 

natural  occurrences  in  the  Bible,  including  such 
preposterous  legends  as  Balaam  and  the  ass,  the 
sun  and  moon  standing  still  at  Joshua's  com- 
mand, the  poetic  fictions  of  Jonah  and  the  whale 
and  others  of  the  same  character,  do  much  in  this 
age  to  impair  the  force  of  their  arguments  in 
favor  of  the  truth  of  other  more  reasonable 
miraculous  narrations  and  of  biblical  inspira- 
tion of  ethics,  prophecies,  and  other  divine 
teachings. 

In  the  great  battle  of  Gettysburg,  July  first, 
second,  and  third,  1863,  in  our  Civil  War,  justly 
regarded  as  the  Waterloo  of  the  Rebellion,  in 
which  about  two  himdred  thousand  men  fought 
in  desperate  and  bloody  conflict  for  three  days, 
according  to  the  ofificial  accounts,  only  six  thousand 
three  hundred  and  thirty-four  were  killed,  and 
twenty-eight  thousand  one  hundred  and  eight 
were  woimded,  a  total  of  only  thirty-four  thou- 
sand five  hundred  and  forty-three  killed  and 
wounded  on  both  sides.  With  this  single  com- 
parison, which  we  think  is  sufficient,  of  one  great 
battle  with  another,  and  fought  under  somewhat 
similar  circumstances,  taking  all  the  surroundings 
into  consideration,  the  grossness  of  the  exaggera- 
tion of  the  number  killed  in  the  army  of  Jeroboam 
needs  no  further  illustration  to  any  reasonable 
and  well-informed  mind.  Of  course,  as  we  have 
intimated,  there  have  been  no  doubt  other  battles, 
especially  in  ancient  times,  when  the  number  of 


i84  Evolution  of  Religions 

killed  and  wounded  were  comparatively  greater 
than  at  Gettysburg,  but  no  such  slaughter  ever 
occurred  in  any  battle  upon  earth,  of  which  we 
have  any  reliable  history,  as  in  the  battle  nar- 
rated in  Chronicles.  A  knowledge  of  the  small 
territorial  area  and  population  of  Judah  and  Israel 
assists  in  showing  how  grossly  exaggerated  that 
historic  statement  must  be.  The  Books  of  Chron- 
icles were  tindoubtedly  written  either  during  or 
soon  after  the  Babylonian  exile,  and  the  motives 
for  the  exaggeration  of  the  loss  of  the  ten  tribes 
in  the  battle,  and  their  terrible  defeat,  were  prob- 
ably mainly  a  desire  to  extol  and  glorify  the 
Davidic  dynasty,  and  the  hatred  of  the  Jews 
against  their  sister  kingdom  for  rebellion  against 
that  dynasty  represented  by  King  Solomon's  son 
Rehoboam,  and  the  dismemberment  of  his  grand- 
father's empire,  which  hatred  existed  for  centuries, 
even  after  the  Israelites  had  been  conquered  and 
expatriated  in  721  B.C.  from  their  country  by  the 
Assyrian  monarch  Shalmaneser,  and  so  scattered 
over  Central  Asia  that  henceforth  their  identity 
not  only  as  tribes,  but  even  as  Hebrews,  was,  and 
has  ever  since  been,  utterly  lost.  Jewish  his- 
torians, poets,  and  prophets  were  always  addicted 
to  extravagant  adulations  of  David's  royal 
family,  their  reigns  and  conquests.  The  prophets 
predicted  that  David's  descendants  should  for- 
ever occupy  the  throne  of  Judah,  and  that  there 
should  be  no  end  of  his   kingdom.     But   these 


The  Story  of  Jesus'  Temptation      185 

predictions  of   the   prophets,   along   with   many 
others,  were  reversed  by  time  and  history. 

The  total  destruction  of  the  Assyrian  army  of 
Sennacherib,  of  one  hundred  and  eighty-five 
thousand  men  in  one  night  by  an  angel  of  the  Lord, 
has  no  historical  corroboration  in  ancient  annals, 
sculptures,  or  otherwise.  Dr.  Briggs  and  other 
scholars  say  the  story  is  untrue.  It  may  simply 
have  been  a  transposition  of  facts.  His  army, 
or  a  part  of  it,  may  have  possibly  been  caught  in 
and  overwhelmed  by  a  desert  simoom  in  Arabia 
or  elsewhere .  History  says  many  thousands  of  the 
army  of  Cambyses,  king  of  Persia  and  Babylon, 
were  destroyed  in  a  great  sandstorm  of  the  African 
desert  of  Libya  a  century  afterwards.  A  similar 
disaster  may  have  befallen  the  army  of  the  Assyri- 
ans, and  Jewish  poets  ascribed  it  to  the  direct  in- 
tervention of  the  Almighty  for  vengeance  upon 
their  enemies.  Or  the  writer  of  Chronicles  may 
have  confounded  the  story  of  Cambyses'  disaster 
with  the  Assyrian. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE    TRINITY 

AS  already  said,  the  facts  of  Bible  miracles,  as 
well  as  of  the  historical  narratives,  like  all 
other  histories,  sacred  or  profane,  depend  upon 
evidence  internal  and  external.  Men  generally 
admit  this  proposition  to  be  correct,  and  yet  it  is 
a  singular  fact,  in  the  discussion  of  biblical  ques- 
tions, that  whenever  any  doubts  are  expressed  con- 
cerning the  truth  of  certain  occurrences  in  it,  mi- 
raculous or  otherwise,  or  any  commonly  received 
doctrines  are  denied,  most  Christians  become  in- 
dignant and  repel  such  doubts  by  charges  of 
heresy,  imbelief,  or  atheism,  and  decry  all  criti- 
cism as  if  all  biblical  subjects  were  too  sacred  for 
investigation.  Yet  many  of  the  books  of  the  Bible 
have  come  down  to  us  without  even  the  authority 
of  certainly  known  authorship.  Books  written 
by  well-known  and  reputable  authors  have  a 
prima  facie  claim  to  credibility,  but  without  such 
known  authorships  they  have  no  such  standing 
per  se,  and  should  be  judged  solely  upon  their 
merits.  Age  alone  cannot  authenticate  books. 
We  know  too  well  that  ancient  religious  books  as 
well  as  ancient  histories  are  full  of  exaggerations 
and  fabulous  stories. 

i86 


The  Trinity  187 

The  authorships  imputed  to  most  of  our  biblical 
books  we  know  have  no  authority,  and  as  the 
searching  criticism  of  the  present  age  has  discov- 
ered, are  generally  fictitious.  Nearly  all  Jewish 
and  early  Christian  history  was  originally  written 
from  tradition  and  folklore.  Tradition,  it  is  said, 
"sometimes  brings  down  truth  that  history  has 
let  slip,  but  is  oftener  the  wild  fireside  stories  of  the 
times. "  They  had  in  ancient  days  no  books  such 
as  we  have  now.  Manuscripts  of  vellum,  Nile 
papyrus,  thin  barks,  or  lambskin  only  were  used, 
and  they  were  few  and  costly,  and  all  written,  imtil 
a  short  time  before  the  discovery  of  the  art  of 
printing  in  1452,  without  using  chapters,  sections, 
verses,  or  punctuation,  just  a  continuous  mass  of 
letters,  usually  only  consonants  without  vowels, 
the  connection  of  which  into  words,  sentences, 
and  sense  had  to  be  deciphered  by  the  subsequent 
reader  or  translator  of  the  manuscript  as  best 
could  be  done.  Hence  additions  and  interpola- 
tions were  easily  made  by  those  wanting  to  support 
their  own  theories  or  to  establish  certain  states  of 
facts,  and  were  difficult  to  detect.  Copies  were 
few  and  costly,  and  marginal  notes  of  previous 
copyists  and  translators  were  often  incorporated 
into  the  original  text,  especially  in  religious  and 
controversialist  writings.  Such  are  known  to  be 
facts.  We  know  that  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  of 
the  apostles,  even  more  so  than  the  books  of  the 
Hebrew  Bible,  have  been  added  to,  interpolated, 


i88  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  greatly  changed  in  words  and  expression.  We 
now  have  no  Christian  or  Jewish  writings  of  the 
first  century  a.d.,  excepting  Flavins  Josephus' 
works,  and  some  of  Paul's  Epistles.  None  of  the 
Gospels  were  written  until  long  after  the  Epistles 
were  written,  because  the  Epistles  do  not  refer  to 
them. 

Strange  and  extraordinary  events  never  lose 
anything,  but  usually  gain  much,  in  exaggeration 
and  embellishments  by  transmittal  in  popular 
traditions,  especially  when  fostered  by  religious 
enthusiasm.  All  of  Christ's  life  and  teachings 
and  the  apostolic  missionary  work  of  the  first 
century  were  only  preserved  in  memory  and  tradi- 
tions, at  least  until  about  its  close.  What  an 
opportunity  in  that  superstitious  age  to  build  up 
legends  of  the  miraculous  conception  and  birth  of 
Jesus,  the  satanic  temptation,  the  miracles 
narrated  of  Him  and  the  circumstances  connected 
with  His  crucifixion  and  resurrection!  Jesus,  if 
bom  according  to  the  common  chronology,  four 
years  before  the  beginning  of  a.d.,  was  thirty- 
seven  years  of  age  when  the  crucifixion  took  place, 
^^  A.D.  The  Gospels  were  imdoubtedly  written 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by  the  Ro- 
mans, which  took  place  69-70  a.d.,  and  prob- 
ably before  the  close  of  the  century,  and  solely 
from  memories  and  traditions.  The  traditions 
about  Jesus  in  consequence  of  the  imlimited  faith 
and  devotion    of   His    disciples    and    subsequent 


The  Trinity  189 

converts,  and  the  superstition  of  those  times,  we 
can  well  beheve,  from  some  of  the  Gospel  miracu- 
lous stories,  as  well  as  the  amazing  Apocryphal 
legends  which  have  come  down  to  us  through  the 
centuries,  were  astonishingly  embellished  and 
magnified  in  rehearsals.  Natural  occurrences 
were  transformed  into  the  miraculous.  Angels 
and  demons  were  aroiind  Him  always. 

It  is  only  human  nature  and  the  experience  and 
history  of  all  time  about  great  founders  of  religion 
that  it  should  have  been  so.  All  manner  of 
traditions  and  legends  of  wonderful  miracles  were 
intwined  in  after-years  with  the  memories  of 
Zoroaster,  Abraham,  Moses,  Confucius,  Buddha, 
and  Mohammed,  as  well  as  Jesus  Christ.  And  so 
the  annals  of  all  great  men,  conquerors,  founders 
of  empires,  etc.,  are  crowded  with  stories  of  uni- 
versally exaggerated  deeds.  Such  is  the  result  of 
fame  and  human  nature's  worship  of  greatness 
alone.  Certainly  Jesus  with  His  wonderfully 
magnetic  and  sympathetic  character  and  His  great 
wisdom  and  imerring  knowledge  of  human  nature, 
even  if  not  accompanied  with  supernatural 
powers,  was  enabled  to  perform  many  wonderful 
works,  such  as  curing  the  sick,  imparting  strength 
to  the  weak,  and  restoring  the  insane  to  their 
right  minds,  which  doubtless  became  the  basis 
of  the  future  traditions  of  His  miracles.  He 
was  doubtless  really,  as  He  was  called,  "the  great 
physician"  of  bodily  ailments  as  well  as  of  souls. 


iQo  Evolution  of  Religions 

Curing  the  insane  in  those  days  was  popularly  be- 
lieved to  be  "casting  out  devils."  All  persons 
afflicted  with  liinacy  were  supposed  to  be  demonia- 
cally possessed.  But  we  should  note  that  even  to 
Jesus'  powers,  however  great  and  however  derived, 
there  were  undoubtedly  limitations,  depending 
greatly  upon  the  faith  and  devotion  of  His  follow- 
ers.* When  in  Galilee,  His  native  country,  "He 
could  do  no  mighty  works  because  of  their  imbe- 
lief."  Such  little  apparently  casual  statements 
we  note  often  illustrate  biblical  narratives  and 
teachings  more  clearly  sometimes  than  whole 
pages  do.  These  few  words  of  the  evangelists 
absolutely  nulHfy  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  If 
Jesus  were  divine,  as  one  of  the  persons  or  incar- 
nations of  the  Deity,  the  belief  or  tmbelief  of  peo- 
ple in  Him  could  be  of  no  manner  of  consequence 
to  His  powers.  He  might,  because  of  their  want  of 
faith  in  Him,  refuse  to  perform  miracles  or  mighty 
works,  but  the  texts  cited  emphatically  say  "He 
could  not."  Here  en  passant  we  desire  to  say 
that  it  is  very  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  great 
French  savant,  Dr.  Ernest  Renan,  one  of  the  forty 
"immortals"  of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences, 
and  a  sincerely  good  man,  in  his  "  Life  of  Christ,"  a 
most  attractive  and  doubtless  mainly  accurate 
biography,  should  feel  himself  called  upon  to  ac- 
cotmt  for  some  of  the  Savior's  wonderful  works  by 
suggesting  that  He  sometimes  used  thaumaturgic 
*  Matthew,  chap,  xiii,  verse  5.     Mark  vi,  verse  8. 


The  Trinity  191 

arts !  That  is  the  only  unpleasant  thing,  the  only 
faux  pas  in  its  pages,  to  mar  the  charm  of  that 
elegant  and  sympathetic  biography  of  the  great 
prophet  of  humanity,  who  Renan  truthfully  de- 
clares, from  the  absolutely  reliable  testimony  we 
have  as  to  His  life  and  character,  was  the  great- 
est and  best  man  who  ever  has  lived  or  probably 
ever  will  live  on  earth. 

Short  as  His  life  was  and  brief  as  His  bio- 
graphies, enough  is  known  of  Jesus,  which  is  true 
beyond  all  question  in  the  Gospels,  apostolic 
Epistles  and  traditions,  to  demonstrate  that  He 
was  more  than  human  and  grandly  above  all 
other  men,  the  incarnation  of  truth,  purity,  and 
goodness,  absolutely  incapable  of  resorting  to  any 
device,  sham,  or  deception,  and  that  whatever 
mysterious  works  He  actually  performed,  were 
done  through  His  own  power  or  divine  assistance. 
Some  of  the  stories  of  His  miracles  as  transmitted 
down  to  us  may  be  fables.  But  that  He  had  al- 
most unbounded  influence  over  His  followers, 
their  devotion  to  Him  in  life,  and  their  entire  self- 
abnegation  in  His  name  and  cause  after  His  death, 
in  lives  of  missionary  privations  and  ultimately 
martyrdoms,  sufficiently  attest.  When  a  mere 
child,  a  rustic  from  the  obscure  village  of  Naza- 
reth in  Galilee,  He  almost  paralyzed  with  aston- 
ishment the  haughty  priests  and  scribes  of  the 
Temple  by  His  perplexing  questions  and  won- 
derful answers.     His  great  knowledge  of  Jewish 


192  Evolution  of  Religions 

institutions  and  history  and  profound  grasp  of  all 
theological  and  moral  subjects  were  astonishing. 
Whence  came  all  His  knowledge  and  the  lucid 
and  beautiful  language  in  which  His  teachings 
were  expressed?  His  parents  and  surroundings 
could  not  have  imparted  such  culture  to  Him.  He 
had  brothers  and  sisters  and  they  were  very  ordi- 
nary persons.  He  had  unquestionably  commun- 
ion with  God  in  some  way,  such  as  they  wot  not  of. 
There  is  a  hiatus  of  eighteen  years  in  His  life,  from 
twelve  years  of  age  until  He  came  to  John  at  the 
river  Jordan  to  be  baptized  at  thirty  years  of  age. 
What  was  Jesus  doing  all  these  years  ?  If  at  home 
working  with  His  father  at  the  carpenter's  bench, 
He  must  have  been  employing  all  His  leisure  hours 
in  commtinion  with  God  and  in  studying  diligently 
any  manuscripts  of  Jewish  literature  He  could 
get.  And  He  may  have  been  away  in  Persia, 
among  the  Jews  there,  studying  the  great  religion 
of  Zoroaster,  or  in  India  studying  Buddhism. 
Many  of  His  teachings  are  but  amplifications  of 
theirs.  The  legend  of  His  conception  and  birth 
is  the  same  as  Buddha's,  excepting  that  the  Christ 
was  the  son  of  a  Galilean  peasant  woman,  and 
Buddha  was  the  son  of  an  Indian  queen.  There 
is  a  strange  similarity  in  the  stories  of  the  advent 
of  the  mysterious  Melchizedek,  king  of  Salem, 
Buddha,  and  Jesus  Christ,  excepting  that  Melchiz- 
edek is  said  to  have  been  "without  father,  with- 
out mother,  without  descent,^  having  neither  be- 

*  Hebrews,  chap.  vii.  verse  3. 


The  Trinity  193 

ginning  of  days  nor  end  of  life,  but  made  like  unto 
the  Son  of  God,  abideth  a  priest  continually." 
Some  theologians  have  supposed  Melchizedek  and 
Jesus  Christ  to  be  one  and  the  same  incarnation 
of  deity.  If  they  were,  why  not  also  Buddha? 
His  life  and  teachings  were  very  similar  to  the 
Savior's,  and  a  religion  which  is  twenty-five  hun- 
dred years  old,  and  whose  followers  yet  number 
one-third  of  the  human  race,  certainly  was  from 
God.  Jesus  may  also  have  known  and  studied 
Confucius's  works.  Confucius  gave  first  the  Golden 
Rule  to  the  world,  and  of  the  precepts  of  men  who 
antedated  the  Christian  era,  none  are  better 
known  and  few  are  cherished  as  his  simple  Ana- 
lects. In  a  rather  interesting  work,  partly  true  and 
partly  fictitious,  entitled  "Jesat  Nassar, "  pub- 
lished in  1890  by  a  learned  Jewish  family  named 
Mamroevs,  Jesus  is  represented  as  having  spent 
most  of  the  years  of  his  youth  traveling  in  the 
countries  surrounding  Palestine,  seeking  and 
acquiring  knowledge.  But  whether  their  sugges- 
tions are  correct  or  not,  Jesus  was  evidently  an 
extraordinarily  gifted  being,  and  endowed  with 
wisdom  and  knowledge  unaccountable  from  the 
usual  conceptions  of  His  youth's  surroundings. 
But  do  the  Scriptures  teach  that  He  is  God  ?  In 
order  to  believe  so,  we  must  so  arbitrarily  con- 
strue sundry  mysterious  and  ambiguous  passages, 
and  distort  or  disbelieve  Jesus'  own  positive  and 
imqualified  declarations,  "  I  can  of  mine  own  self 


194  Evolution  of  Religions 

do  nothing.  My  Father  is  greater  than  I.  "  '  And 
many  similar  and  equally  clear  and  positive  asser- 
tions of  His  subjection  to  and  dependence  upon 
God,  which  He  made  on  various  occasions,  some  of 
which  we  heretofore  quoted.^  In  a  few  of  Jesus' 
sayings  there  is  apparently  some  mystery  as  to 
His  sonship  and  preexistence,  but  in  those  quoted 
there  is  none  as  to  His  divinity.  They  are  clear- 
cut  and  thoroughly  explicit  in  stating  His  inferi- 
ority to  God  and  absolute  submission  to  His  will. 

Coming  down  to  us  through  sixteen  centuries 
of  orthodox  translations  and  manipulations  of 
the  Gospels,  why  should  they  not  be  understood 
and  believed  just  as  spoken  by  Jesus  ?  Why  under 
such  circumstances  discard  His  clear  and  em- 
phatic utterances  and  build  up  mystic  and  incom- 
prehensible creeds  based  upon  some  other  myste- 
rious expressions  and  upon  supposed  conditions  of 
human  relations  to  God  that  never  had  any  but 
an  imaginary  existence?  And  if  Jesus  made  the 
distinct  disavowals  of  divinity  and  declared  His 
dependence  upon  and  filial  submission  to  His 
Heavenly  Father's  will  as  quoted,  then  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Trinity  is  not  true,  nor  countenanced 
by  anything  He  said,  but  is  solely  an  invention 
of  ecclesiasticism 

Just  as  are,  and  have  no  more  scriptural  author- 
ity, the  third  and  fourth  sections  of  the  Westmin- 

»  John,  chap,  v,  verse  30,  and  chap,  xiv,  verse  28. 
»  See  page  55. 


The  Trinity  195 

ster  Confession  of  Faith,  which  are  as  positively 
enunciated  as  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity  is,  viz. 
Section  three :  "  By  the  decree  of  God  for  the  mani- 
festation of  His  glory  some  men  and  angels  are 
predestined  imto  everlasting  life,  and  others  fore- 
ordained imto  everlasting  death."     Section  four: 
"  These  angels  and  men  thus  predestined  and  fore- 
ordained are  particularly  and  unchangeably  de- 
signed, and  their  nimiber  is  so  certain  and  definite 
that  it  cannot  be  either  increased  or  diminished." 
That    is    absolute    election    and    predestination. 
These  dogmas  are  mere  inventions  of  fanaticism 
and  bigotry  and  are  wholly  unauthorized  by  the 
general  tone  of  the  Scriptures.     They  are  a  mere 
sectarian  patchwork  made  up  from  a  few  isolated 
expressions    of    St.    Paul's    and    other   apostolic 
writings,  based  upon  the  fable  of  Eden  and  the 
great  temptation  of  Matthew  and  Luke's  Gospels, 
and    the  intangible    dreams  of    the  Apocalyptic 
revelations,  but  only  through  far-fetched  construc- 
tions and  distortions  of  their  meanings.     There 
are  no  reasonable  grounds  for  any  such  unnatural 
metaphorical,  or  mystical  construction  or  inter- 
pretation of  Jrsus'  teachings  either  in  relation  to 
His  sonship  to  God,  or  to  the  awful  doctrine  of  the 
eternal    predestined  ruin  and    misery  of    nearly 
all  the  human  race.     Those  doctrines  were  grad- 
ually evolved  by  the  Church  of  the  Dark  Ages; 
thi^y  were  not  beliefs  of  primitive  Christianity. 
When  Rome  became  the  Church,  all  Christians 


196  Evolution  of  Religions 

were  required  to  believe  those  and  other  orthodox 
dogmas  under  penalty  of  anathemas,  of  temporal 
and  eternal  ruin.  And  when  conditions  pre- 
vented orthodoxy  from  enforcing  and  perpetuat- 
ing them  by  such  means,  it  has  sought  to  do  so  by 
distortions  of  scriptural  teachings,  and  all  manner 
of  sophistry.  Much  of  the  literature  of  the  ages 
has  been  perverted  to  such  purposes.  In  one  of 
the  sublimest  poems  ever  written,  the  Russian 
poet  Derzhavin's  "Invocation  to  God,"  which  has 
never  been  surpassed  for  beauty  and  grandeur  by 
anything  in  the  Bible,  or  in  any  book  or  language, 
a  forgery  has  been  perpetrated  in  some  of  its  pub- 
lications years  after  its  first  appearance  by  some 
trinitarian  bigot,  by  changing  the  fifth  line  of  the 
first  stanza,  which  reads  as  originally  written, 
"Being  above  all  Beings,  mighty  one,"  into  "Be- 
ing above  all  Beings,  three  in  one,"  thus  not  only 
spoiling  the  grandeur  of  the  poem,  but  making 
the  author  do  what  he  never  intended  to  do,  teach 
the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Derzhavin  wrote  this 
peerless  song  of  sublimest  adoration  to  God  in 
1 810,     He  died  July,  1816. 

The  tenets  of  the  first  three  centuries  of  the 
Christian  churches  —  for  there  was  then  no  para- 
mount church  nor  any  distinctive  creed — were 
mainly  the  same  as  those  sustained  by  Arius,  Pela- 
gius,  Celestius,  and  Julian,  Bishop  of  Eclanum,  in 
Italy,  during  the  ecclesiastical  conflicts  of  the 
fourth  century.     Those  tenets  were  clearly  set 


The  Trinity  i97 

forth  by  Celestius  when  the  question  of  his  ordina- 
tion to  the  ministry  came  up  in  the  famous  Coimcil 
of  Carthage,  411  a.d.     Those  tenets  were: 

First.  That  Adam  would  have  died  even  if  he 
had  not  sinned. 

Second.  Adam's  sin  injured  him  only,  not  the 
race. 

Third.  Children  are  bom  as  pure  as  Adam  was 
before  he  fell. 

Fourth.  Men  neither  die  because  Adam  fell,  nor 
rise  again  in  consequence  of  Christ's  resurrection. 

Fifth.  Unbaptized  as  well  as  baptized  infants 
are  saved. 

Sixth.  The  law,  i.e.,  Mosaic,  as  well  as  the 
Gospels,  leads  to  heaven. 

Seventh.  Even  before  Christ's  advent  there 
were  sinless  men. 

These  grand,  true,  and  beautiful  tenets  of  Celes- 
tius and  his  colleagues  were  supported  by  a  great 
many  of  the  bishops,  and  particularly  most  of  the 
Asiatic  and  African  bishops,  at  this  council,  but 
they  were  all  condemned  by  a  majority  and  his 
ordination  was  refused. 

After  that  council  the  doctrines  of  orthodoxy 
made  rapid  progress  under  the  sanction  and  domi- 
nation of  Rome,  though  in  the  Eastern  churches 
there  were  still  many  Arians,  as  those  holding  the 
above  tenets  were  generally  called.  The  Arians 
believed  in  the  divine  sonship  of  Jesus,  but  not  in 
the  Trinity.     But  there  were,  even  among  Trinita- 


198  Evolution  of  Religions 

rians,  for  centuries  afterwards,  many  conflicting 
opinions  notwithstanding  the  decision  of  the 
Council  of  Carthage  and  the  teachings  of  Chrysos- 
tom,  Origen,  St.  Augustine,  Athanasius,  and 
others,  and  orthodoxy  was  only  finally  formu- 
lated into  its  present  dogmas  by  Anselm,  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  England,  about  iioo  a.d. 
He  was  the  leader  of  medieval  scholastic  Christi- 
anity. There  has  always,  however,  been  a  con- 
flict between  extreme  and  moderate  orthodoxy, 
the  former  represented  by  the  school  of  St.  Augus- 
tine, Calvin,  and  Presbyterianism  generally,  and 
the  moderates  by  Semi-Pelagians  and  Arminians, 
chief  of  whom  were  Arminius,  Wesley,  and  the 
modern  Methodists,  differing  mainly  upon  the 
questions  of  man's  status  after  the  fall  and  the 
eternal  decrees  of  God  in  election,  foreordination, 
and  predestination.  One  of  Calvin's  theses  was 
that,  "Such  moreover  was  the  relation  subsisting 
between  Adam  and  his  descendants,  that  God 
righteously  regards  and  treats  each  one  as  he 
comes  into  being,  as  worthy  of  the  punishment  of 
Adam's  sin,  and  consequently  withholds  His 
life,  giving  fellowship  from  Him." 

Jonathan  Edwards  in  one  of  his  sermons  re- 
presents the  Almighty  as  holding  each  one  of 
Adam's  posterity  over  the  yawning  fiery  gulf  of 
hell  and  threatening  to  drop  them  therein,  and 
only  restrained  by  unmerit-^d  compassion  and 
grace   through    Christ   to    save   the    predestined 


The  Trinity  199 

elect.  Furthermore,  he  says  that  the  happiness 
of  the  redeemed  in  heaven  would  be  enhanced, 
instead  of  being  imbittered,  by  the  knowledge 
that  others  of  their  fellow-creatures  (this  includes, 
we  suppose,  near  and  dear  ones  when  on  earth) 
were  suffering  eternal  torments,  by  reflecting  upon 
the  infinite  love  which  had  without  any  merits  of 
their  own  chosen  and  preserved  them  to  eternal 
happiness.^  And  the  man  who  taught  the  above, 
and  much  more  of  the  same  kind  of  blasphemy 
was  considered  in  his  day  a  great  Christian  divine, 
an  exemplar  and  teacher  of  his  fellow-men,  and  his 
works  were  standard  doctrine  imtil  fifty  years  ago. 
He  may  have  been  a  good  man  in  his  way,  but  his 
ideas  of  divine  justice,  mercy,  and  love  are  in- 
comprehensible and  awful. 

Arminius  denied  the  doctrines  of  election  and 
predestination,  and  the  personal  guilt  of  Adam's 
descendants  in  his  fall,  but  affirmed  all  the  other 
tenets  of  orthodoxy.  Whatever  may  be  the  re- 
lation of  Jesus  Christ  to  God,  and  whether  He  was 
of  supernatural  conception  and  birth.  He  is  not 
God,  nor  does  the  Bible  anywhere  teach  that  He  is. 
Jesus,  we  affirm  and  believe,  is  Son  of  God,  not  only 
in  the  sense  in  which  Adam  is  called  the  "son  of 
God,"  '  and  as  patriarchs  and  prophets  are  fre- 
quently styled  in  the  Bible,  "sons  of  God,"  be- 
cause of  their  service,  obedience,  and  faithfulness 

1  Edwards*  Sermons,  ii  and  13. 
'  Luke,  chap,  iii,  verse  38. 


200  Evolution  of  Religions 

to  Him,  but  also  as  the  inspired  prophet  and  Mes- 
siah of  the  universal  religion  ushered  in  by  Him. 
As  to  His  parentage,  Jesus  was  undoubtedly 
from  His  birth  believed  by  His  relatives  and  Gali- 
lean countrymen  to  be  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary 
his  wife.  The  story  of  the  espousal  only,  before 
Jesus'  conception  is  doubtless  a  part  of  the  sacred 
myth,  but  if  true,  and  the  actual  marriage  or 
coming  together  had  not  already  taken  place,  it 
made,  according  to  Jewish  custom,  virtually  no 
difference,  and  no  discredit  to  parents  or  child. 
We  know  from  Jewish  literature  that  the  be- 
trothal was  the  higher  and  more  sacred  obligation, 
and  the  marriage  ceremony  afterward,  if  per- 
formed, only  confirmatory  and  not  essential.  The 
couple  were  really  after  the  espousal,  husband  and 
wife,  and  a  legal  divorce  was  necessary  to  release 
them  from  betrothal  bonds.  Doubtless  they 
were  married,  and  the  myth  of  Jesus'  nativity 
grew  up  after  He  became  famous,  most  probably 
long  after  His  crucifixion.  It  was  part  of  the 
myth  of  His  supernatural  conception  to  affirm  that 
Joseph  and  Mary  had  not  previously  lived  in 
marriage  relation.  After  Jesus'  wonderful  career 
and  His  departure  from  earth.  He  was  virtually 
deified  by  His  followers,  and  when  the  Gospels 
were  written  about  the  close  of  the  century,  all 
sorts  of  legends  were  rife  concerning  Him,  multi- 
plied and  magnified  immensely  by  the  terrible 
scenes  and  experiences  of  the  war  with  the  Ro- 


The  Trinity  201 

mans,  and  the  utter  destruction  of  Jerusalem  and 
desolation  of  all  Palestine. 

Many  apocryphal  gospels  and  teachings  of 
Jesus  were  written,  some  before  and  some  after 
the  four  Canonical  Gospels.  Among  these  were 
the  Arabic  gospel  of  the  childhood  of  Jesus,  the 
gospel  of  St.  Thomas,  the  gospel  of  St.  James, 
the  gospel  of  Joseph  the  carpenter,  the  gospel  of 
Pseudo  Matthew,  or  logia  of  Matthew,  the  Evan- 
gelium  Nicodemi,  and  a  number  of  others,  all  still 
wholly,  or  partially  extant.  All  these,  concurring 
in  much,  and  differing  in  many  essentials  from 
each  other  and  from  the  Canonical  Gospels,  were 
in  common  circulation  and  largely  believed  for  cen- 
turies.* The  Canonical  Gospels,  as  said  by  John,' 
did  not  nearly  contain  all  the  sayings  and  miracles 
of  Jesus.  The  spirit  of  exaggeration  and  the 
marvelous,  which  filled  the  popular  legends  about 
Him,  is  clearly  manifested  by  the  same  apostle,  in 
saying,  that  if  all  the  things  which  He  did  were 
written,  he,  the  apostle,  "supposed  that  even  the 
world  itself  could  not  contain  the  books."  In 
reality,  the  world  was  full  of  mythical  and  legend- 
ary stories  about  Him,  many  of  which,  as  col- 
lected by  Rev.  B.  Peck,  already  mentioned, 
though  amazingly  ridiculous,  astonishing,  and  in- 
credible, were  for  centuries  believed  in  by  Chris- 

*  St.  Luke,  chap,  i,  verse  i,  indorses  them,  or  similar  gos- 
pels or  declarations. 

'  St.  John,  chap,  xxi,  verse  25. 


202  Evolution  of  Religions 

tians  generally.  Some  of  them,  including  the  many- 
marvelous  stories  of  Jesus'  supernatural  birth, 
doubtless  had  much  influence  in  fashioning  the 
narratives  of  the  two  evangelists.  In  fact,  as 
we  know  from  traditions,  the  Canonical  Gospels 
were  only  a  choice  of  material  from  among  many 
manuscripts. 

We  have  no  knowledge  that  any  of  Christ's 
works  or  sayings  were  kept  otherwise  than  in 
memory  and  tradition  tmtil  a  half  century  or  more 
after  His  death.  None  of  the  evangelists  except- 
ing John,  profess  to  have  been  cognizant  of  what 
they  wrote.  The  authorship  of  all  is  uncertain. 
The  stories  of  Jesus'  conception  and  birth  as 
narrated  in  the  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Luke 
were  certainly  unknown  in  His  lifetime.  He  never 
referred  even  most  distantly  to  them.  At  any 
rate,  bom  of  honest  parents  and  in  wedded  love, 
there  can  be  no  sensible  reason  given  why,  if  so 
bom,  Jesus  was  not  as  pure  and  sinless  as  if  bom 
from  mere  virginal  or  theophanic  conception. 
God  was  the  Almighty  Father  in  either  case,  and 
all  rational  beings  are  His  children.  There  is 
absolutely  nothing  holier  in  the  universe,  we 
affirm,  than  honest  maternity,  nor  more  sinless, 
innocent,  and  pure  than  a  child  bom  of  wedded 
love.  It  is  God's  grandest  and  most  beautiful 
conception  and  creation  of  an  immortal  being, 
and  it  is  an  insult  to  its  parents  to  say  that  it  "  was 
conceived  in  sin  and  bom  in  iniquity,"  which  is 


The  Trinity  203 

merely  a  refrain  of  the  old  Mephistophelian  story 
of  the  fall.  We  repudiate  such  doctrine  and 
wonder  that  every  good  and  virtuous  woman  in 
the  world  does  not  repudiate  and  scorn  it  as  un- 
just and  false.  The  dogmas  that  all  are  bom  in 
sin  and  fit  only  and  justly  doomed  to  be  damned 
from  birth,  was  a  product  of  superstition,  priest- 
craft, and  fanaticism,  and  has  done  more  to 
degrade  woman  and  keep  her  in  the  old-time  con- 
dition of  semi-slavery  than  any  other  tenet  of  reli- 
gion. No  wonder  that  the  Moslem,  believing  in 
the  innate  impurity  and  sinfulness  of  woman,  and 
through  Eve  the  cause  of  sin  and  death,  grudgingly 
admits  her  to  his  celestial  paradise  at  all,  and  only 
as  the  slave  of  her  husband  and  his  immortal  houri. 
The  ancient  monkish  Christian  conception  of  her 
position  in  the  orthodox  scheme  of  salvation  was 
not  much  more  alluring  than  the  Islamites. 

Jesus'  mother  said  to  Him,  when  as  a  youth  of 
twelve  He  was  found  by  herself  and  her  husband 
in  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem  among  the  rabbis 
and  priests  asking  and  answering  great  questions, 
"Son,  why  hast  thou  done  thus?  Behold,  thy 
father  and  I  have  sought  thee  sorrowing." 
Would  she  have  spoken  thus  of  Joseph  as  His 
father  if  the  story  of  His  supernatural  birth  were 
true?  Nor  did  she  ever  otherwise  intimate  that 
He  was  any  other  than  her  and  Joseph's  son,  the 
same  as  His  brothers  and  sisters.  We  find  nu- 
merous records  of  Jesus  having  had  brothers  and 


204  Evolution  of  Religions 

sisters  mentioned  in  the  Bible.*  As  one  of  the 
sequences  of  the  doctrine  of  the  utter  sinfulness 
and  total  depravity  of  man,  as  a  result  of  the 
Edenic  fall,  which  was  mainly  evolved  in  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries  after  Christ  (we  have  no 
evidence  that  it  was  ever  taught  earlier)  by 
Athanasius,  Chrysostom,  Origen,  St.  Augustine, 
and  other  mystics,  the  fanatical  priests  and  monks 
(celibates  living  secluded  from  the  world  to  avoid 
its  temptations  and  contaminations)  in  the  moim- 
tains  and  deserts  of  Palestine,  Arabia,  and  Libya, 
taught  and  believed  (the  denial  of  the  dogma  was 
afterwards  made  mortal  heresy  by  the  church, 
consigning  the  heretic  to  eternal  damnation)  that 
no  one  bom  of  woman  by  natural  conception 
could  possibly  be  from  birth  sinless  or  other  than 
an  heir  of  hell,  through  Adam's  fall  alone,  even  if 
he  in  life  afterward  committed  no  actual  sins. 
Hence  the  doctrine  of  the  supernatural  conception 
of  Jesus  was  deemed  necessary,  as  one  of  the  per- 
sons of  the  Trinity,  in  the  scheme  of  atonement, 
and  was  so  formulated.  This  was  after  the  final 
triumph  of  Rome  in  411  a.d.  at  the  Council  of 
Carthage  over  the  primitive  Unitarian  faith  of 
Arianism.  That  Council  heralded  to  the  world  the 
tenets  of  orthodoxy  mainly  in  the  form  they  have 
since  been  taught. 

*  Matthew,  chap,  xii,  verse  46;  chap,  xiii,  verse  55.  Mark, 
chap,  vi,  verse  33;  chap,  xv,  verse  40.  John,  chap,  ii,  verse 
12;  chap,  vii,  verse  5. 


The  Trinity  205 

Many  Fathers  of  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Church,  as  well  as  ascetics  and  monks,  decried 
marriage  and  rapturously  extolled  celibacy  and 
virginity.  Women,  Chrysostom  said,  were  neces- 
sary, evils  and  their  beauty  and  winsome  ways  a 
curse  to  men,  and  that  even  the  natural  union  and 
cohabitation  in  marriage  were  sinful,  though  he 
admitted  marriage  was  originally  ordained  of  God 
to  procreate  the  human  race.  St.  Augustine,  after 
reformation  from  his  early  years  of  unbridled  and 
reckless  vice  and  libertinism,  taught  the  same 
morbid  asceticism  and  abstinence  from  marriage. 
Thus,  doubtless,  the  legend  of  the  supernatural 
or  theophanic  conception  of  the  Virgin  Mary  was 
the  product  of  the  monastic  idea  of  the  impurity 
of  the  union  of  husband  and  wife,  and  that  a  holy 
child  could  not  be  bom  of  such  union.  It  was 
simply  an  exemplification  of  the  theory  of  original 
sin,  mainly,  that  since  the  fall  it  was  the  order  of 
nature  and  consequently  the  will  of  God  that 
every  descendant  of  Adam  and  Eve  should  be 
bom  in  sin,  hence,  according  to  St.  Augustine 
and  Calvin,  all  were  bom  inevitably  lost  sinners. 
These  ideas  were  the  inspiration  of  the  story  of  the 
theophanic  conception  of  Mary,  evolved  in  the 
second  century,  perhaps  later.  It  did  not  exist 
in  Jesus'  lifetime,  and  we  do  not  know  that  it  was 
in  the  original  Gospels.  No  mention  is  made  of  it 
in  the  apostolic  Epistles  or  in  any  writings  of  the 
second  century.     Paul  did  not  know  of  it  when 


2o6  Evolution  of  Religions 

he  wrote  Romans.^  When  it  was  evolved  to 
gratify  Jewish  vanity  and  the  Jewish  devotees, 
who  mainly  composed  the  church  of  the  first  and 
second  centuries,  by  claiming  the  fulfillment  of  old 
prophetic  mysterious  predictions  in  regard  to  the 
perpetuity  of  King  David's  throne  and  the  future 
coming  of  a  prince  of  that  line,  which  was  the  dream 
and  hope  of  the  Jews  for  ages  amidst  all  the 
disasters  which  overtook  and  f  oho  wed  them,  the 
parentage  and  descent  of  Jesus  as  the  Messiah 
were  attempted  to  be  traced  back  to  David.  But 
no  such  lineage  is  shown  through  Mary.  Only  the 
lineage  of  Jesus  from  David  through  Joseph 
is  shown.^ 

Only  Matthew  and  Luke  of  the  evangelists 
give  genealogies,  and  they  show  the  descent  of 
Jesus  through  Joseph  from  David  through  dif- 
ferent lines  of  ancestors,  probably  paternal  and 
maternal.  No  descent  of  Mary  from  David  is 
shown.  If  she  had  such  descent,  her  genealogy 
would  undoubtedly  have  been  given.  But  the 
importance  of  the  combination  does  not  seem  to 
have  dawned  upon  the  evangelists,  as  seen  in  after- 
times.  The  assumption  of  orthodox  writers  of 
past  or  present  ages,  that  Mary  was  of  David's 
line,  is  wholly  gratuitous  and  without  any  foun- 
dation in  the  Gospels  or  elsewhere.  She  has  no 
other  history.     Hence,  if  Joseph  was  not  Jesus' 

'  Romans,  chap,  i,  verse  3. 

2  Matthew,  chap.  i.     Luke,  chap,  iii 


The  Trinity  207 

father,  there  is  absolutely  nothing  in  the  Gospels 
or  elsewhere  to  show  that  Jesus  was  of  the  lin- 
eage of  King  David,  and  consequently  the  pro- 
phetic predictions  which  were  supposed  to  have 
centered  in  Him  as  a  Prince  of  David's  blood, 
and  which  are  so  often  quoted,  were  never  ful- 
filled and  did  not  apply  to  Him  at  all.  The  story 
of  Jesus  having  been  bom,  not  at  Nazareth 
(though  He  is  always  called  the  Nazarene  and 
never  the  Bethlehemite),  the  home  of  Joseph 
and  of  Mary,  but  at  Bethlehem,  the  "City  of 
David,"  and  far  away  from  His  parents'  home, 
which  was  invented,  probably,  to  claim  the  ful- 
fillment of  old  biblical  prophecies,  would  be  of  no 
consequence  if  He  were  not  Joseph's  son,  even  if 
it  were  true.  But  it  is  probably  not  true  histori- 
cally, for  the  census  of  Quirinus  ^  did  not  take 
place,  as  has  been  proved  by  Roman  Imperial 
records,  until  6-7  a.d.,  when  Jesus  was,  accord- 
ing to  chronological  data,  ten  or  eleven  years  old.^ 
Moreover,  it  is  unreasonable  to  believe  that  the 
Roman  pro-consul  Quirinus  or  Cyrenius  should 
have  had  old  Jewish  genealogical  records  hunted 
and  searched,  for  the  purpose  of  determining 
where  an  obscure  Galilean  and  his  family  should 
be  enrolled  in  a  Roman  census,  and  on  account 
of  an   obsolete  family  tradition,   that  his  ances- 

*  Luke,  chap,  ii,  verses  1-7  inclusive. 

*  Briggs,  Stud}'  of  Holy  Scripture,   page  530,  where   the 
story  of  the  census  is  shown  to  be  untrue. 


2o8  Evolution  of  Religions 

tors  once  lived  at  Bethlehem  centuries  before, 
should  have  cited  Joseph,  a  poor  man  and  un- 
known outside  of  his  native  village,  to  go  from 
Nazareth  to  distant  Bethlehem  with  his  yoimg 
wife  to  be  listed. 

The  story  was  evidently  framed  long  after  Jesus' 
crucifixion  in  order  to  have  His  birthplace  ac- 
cord with  an  old  prophetic  declaration,^  and 
remodeled  to  suit  the  occasion,  which  predic- 
tion was  probably  made  about  the  time  the  ten 
tribes  of  Israel  were  carried  into  captivity,  and 
referred  to  the  hope  of  a  prince  of  David's  line 
who  should  in  future  time  come  and  rule  over 
the  reunited  children  of  Judah  and  the  remnants 
of  Israel.  The  song  of  the  angels  at  the  birth 
of  Jesus  was  more  likely  heard  among  the  roman- 
tic hills  and  vales  of  Nazareth  and  over  the  blue, 
starlit  Sea  of  Galilee  than  over  the  plain  of  Bethle- 
hem. The  shepherds  were  more  probably  watch- 
ing their  flocks  in  the  fields  in  the  soft  moonlit 
evenings  of  May  than  in  the  wintry  nights  of 
Christmas  tide.  As  Jesus  was  frequently  styled 
in  the  Gospels  and  Epistles  "the  Son  of  David," 
He  must  perforce,  therefore,  as  the  writers  of 
them  had  no  evidence  of  Mary,  His  mother,  being 
of  the  lineage  of  David,  have  been  really  regarded 
by  them,  notwithstanding  the  legend  of  His  mi- 
raculous birth,  as  Joseph's  son,  and  hence  a  descen- 
dant of  David.     St.  Mark  and  St.  John  in  their 

*  Micah,  chap,  v,  verse  2. 


The  Trinity  209 

Gospels  do  not  even  allude  to  the  story  of  His 
supernatural  birth,  which  is  certainly  unaccount- 
able, if  known  to  or  believed  by  them. 

The  unadorned  facts  of  the  Gospels  carefully 
considered  and  harmonized  with  all  the  meager 
traditional  light  of  those  days,  seem  to  dissipate 
the  myth,  and  teach  that  Jesus  was  really  the  son 
of  Joseph  and  Mary.  By  His  relatives  and 
neighbors  Jesus  was  universally  regarded  as 
their  son.  So  Paul  teaches.*  The  legends  of  St. 
Matthew  and  St.  Luke  are  contrary  to  their  genea- 
logies, and  the  genealogies  are  pointless  and  value- 
less if  they  do  not  show  His  descent  from  Joseph. 
If  the  theory  of  the  theophanic  conception  of  Jesus 
was,  that  He  was  to  be  bom  merely  as  an  incarna- 
tion of  Deity,  He  could  have  no  hereditary  or  other 
taint  from  His  mother,  of  original  sin,  even  if  His 
mother  were  not  immaculate  or  had  not  been  her- 
self conceived  without  any  taint  of  sin.  The 
Catholic  Church  only,  of  all  the  churches  of  Chris- 
tendom, teaches,  as  we  imderstand,  that  Mary  was 
herself  immaculately  conceived  and  bom  sinless  to 
become  the  "  Mother  of  God,"  as  Catholics  style 
her.  This  dogma  was  first  enunciated  at  a  general 
coimcil  of  Catholic  clergy  in  511  A.D.,  but  never 
formally  adopted  and  proclaimed  by  the  Church  un- 
til so  proclaimed  by  Pope  Pius  IX  in  his  bull  styled 
"  Infallibilus  Deus,  "  on  December  8,  1854,  with  the 
assent  of  nearly  all  the  cardinals  of  the  church. 
*  Romans,  chaps,  i  and  Hi. 


2IO  Evolution  of  Religions 

The  bull  declared  "that  the  most  blessed  Vir- 
gin Mary  in  the  first  moment  of  her  conception, 
by  a  special  grace  and  privilege  of  Almighty  God, 
in  virtue  of  the  merits  of  Christ,  was  preserved 
immaculate  from  all  stain  of  sin."  The  dogma 
has  no  Scripture  authority  whatever,  and  is  imi- 
versally  rejected  by  the  Greek  and  all  Protestant 
churches.  Moreover,  it  is  unnecessary,  for  if 
God  could  make  the  Virgin  Mary  immaculate 
from  the  moment  of  her  conception.  He  could  as 
well  ordain  the  immaculate  conception  and  birth 
of  Jesus,  either  as  Deity  incarnated,  or  as  God's 
divine  Son,  or  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary.  With 
God  nothing  is  impossible.  If  Jesus  was  an  apo- 
theosis of  Deity,  really  only  God  manifested  in  hu- 
man form,  then  He  was  as  already  said  only  God, 
and  there  could  be  no  duality  or  trinity  of  being 
in  Him  as  a  mere  manifestation  of  God.  He  was 
in  such  case  really  and  only  God,  and  it  mattered 
not  in  that  case  whether  His  human  mother, 
merely  so  for  the  incarnation,  was  immaculate  or 
not,  for  He  would  be  sinless  as  God.  But  if  only 
a  demi-son  of  God,  if  there  are  hereditary  im- 
puted taints  of  original  sin,  as  orthodoxy  teaches, 
as  well  as  hereditary  tendencies  to  sin  and  disease 
as  of  other  human  traits,  personally,  mentally, 
and  morally,  they  would  be  inherited  and  trans- 
mitted from  the  mother  alone  as  well  as  from  a 
parentage  of  both  human  father  and  mother.  If 
a  child  could  through  divine  power  be  conceived 


The  Trinity  211 

and  bom  free  from  those  hereditary  strains  from 
a  non -immaculate  mother,  as  Mary's  mother  is 
presumed  to  have  been,  it  could  also  be  preserved 
from  them  by  the  same  power  through  a  non-im- 
maculate father.  Hence,  if  such  divine  interfer- 
ence, according  to  the  Catholic  doctrine,  in  the 
case  of  Mary  at  her  own  conception  or  at  the  con- 
ception of  Jesus,  took  place  and  she  was  made 
immaculate,  so  could  a  human  father  be  made 
immaculate  by  the  same  divine  power.  So  there 
was  apparently,  according  to  the  Catholic  dogma, 
no  necessity  morally  for  the  theophanic  concep- 
tion of  Mary,  even  if  Jesus  was  to  be  a  human 
sinless  bom  son  of  God,  or  a  preexistent  created 
being  going  through  a  reincarnation  or  new  birth, 
and  not  absolutely  and  only  God,  the  Almighty 
manifested  in  human  body. 

We  desire  to  be  reverent,  but  think  it  right  to 
consider  these  questions  in  all  their  bearings,  as 
from  the  two  evangelists'  narratives  of  Jesus' 
nativity  in  connection  with  the  story  of  Eden  and 
the  fall  and  the  Apocalypse  of  St.  John,  the 
doctrines  of  the  Trinity  and  the  vicarious  atone- 
ment of  Jesus  have  been  entirely  formulated. 
The  story  of  the  virgin's  conception  of  Jesus  seems 
to  be  merely  a  mythical  legend  without  any 
reasons  for  it  or  proof  of  it.  According  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  immaculate  conception,  Jesus 
could  have  been  bom  as  absolutely  pure  and 
sinless,  as  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  as  from 


212  Evolution  of  Religions 

theophanic  agency.  The  story  is  certainly  an  en- 
tirely unnatural  one,  and  so  challenges  the  most 
rigid  examination.  It  depends  entirely  upon  the 
statements  of  the  two  evangelists,  and  to  them  it 
could  only  have  been  communicated  nearly  a  cen- 
tury after  its  occurrence  by  God  alone,  through 
direct  communication.  Did  He  do  so  ?  The  world 
wants  some  corroborative  proof.  The  same  applies 
to  the  immaculate  conception  ;  all  the  disquisitions 
and  speculations  about  it  are  merely  mystical, 
scholastic,  and  ecclesiastical  theories  without  any 
scriptural  support  whatever. 

What  does  it  all  amount  to?  Jesus,  if  God  in- 
carnated through  birth  from  Mary,  was  only  the 
one  God  Almighty  still.  If  a  Son  of  God  previ- 
ously created  and  living  in  Heaven,  from  the  be- 
ginning of  the  ages  and  reborn  supematurally 
through  Mary,  He  was  only  a  fellow-creature  and 
higher  Son  of  God  than  if  of  the  blood  of  Joseph 
and  Mary.  In  either  case  Jesus  had  but  one 
Father,  God,  and  doubtless  He  says  to  all  His 
followers  as  said  the  glorious  angel  in  Revelation 
to  John,  "  See  thou  worship  me  not,  for  I  am  thy 
fellow-servant,  and  of  thy  brethren  the  prophets 
and  of  them  which  keep  the  sayings  of  this  Book, 
worship  only  God." 

Jesus  was  known  all  His  life  by  His  neighbors 
of  Nazareth  as  the  son  of  Joseph,  nor  was  there 
ever  during  His  lifetime  any  intimation  of  mystery 
about  His  birth  or  parentage,  or  that  He  was  other 


The  Trinity  213 

than  the  legitimate  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary.  Who 
Mary  was  we  are  not  told.  No  genealogy  of  her 
was  ever  given  by  the  evangelists,  and  she  was 
doubtless  a  GaHlean  peasant  girl,  of  good  but 
obscure  family.  The  legends  of  Matthew  and 
Luke  about  Jesus'  birth  savor  much  of  similar 
fancies  in  the  Egyptian  and  Hindoo  religions  about 
the  births  of  Osiris  and  Buddha. 

He  was  the  grandest  and  best  of  men,  as  truly 
the  Son  of  God  by  His  life  of  absolute  devotion  to 
His  service  and  the  welfare  of  men,  as  if  the  story 
of  His  supernatural  conception  was  literally  true. 
Evidently  if  the  story  were  extant  in  His  day 
Jesus  attached  no  importance  to  it,  for  He  never 
once  alluded  to  it.  He  left  of  His  life  work  and 
teachings  not  a  line,  not  even  so  much  as  a  "writ- 
ing in  the  sand."  ^  The  only  memorials  He  left 
were  in  the  remembrances  of  His  devoted  disciples. 
Never  had  any  men  a  grander,  nobler  leader,  nor 
ever  king,  conqueror,  or  prophet,  braver  or  more 
faithful  followers,  willing  for  His  memory  and  the 
faith  he  left  them  to  sacrifice  everything  they  had 
on  earth,  to  meet  the  bitterest  persecution  and 
even  cruel  martyrdoms,  without  a  fear  or  murmur. 
Glorious  leader!  But  whether  of  theophanic  con- 
ception or  the  son  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  aside  from 
its  bearing  on  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity,  matters 
really  but  little.  Jesus  was  in  either  case  among 
His  fellow-men  preeminently  the  Son  of  God,  the 
*  John,  chap,  viii,  verses  6-8. 


214  Evolution  of  Religions 

Prophet  of  prophets,  the  divine  Teacher,  and  His 
peerless  life  and  work  left  a  record  in  the  hearts 
of  His  disciples  and  a  perennial  influence  for  good, 
such  as  no  other  man,  bom  of  woman,  ever  did, 
and  which  in  His  rehgion  will  contiaue,  we  be- 
lieve, through  all  the  ages  of  time,  ever  expand- 
ing until  it  covers  the  earth.  Only  Zoroaster  of 
Persia,  Buddha,  and  Confucius  ever  approxi- 
mately wielded  the  influence  on  the  destinies 
of  the  world  which  Jesus  Christ  has  done. 
Their  spheres  of  influence  never  were  so  broad, 
and  in  the  centuries  past  have  been  diminishing. 
His  has  been  expanding  wider  and  wider,  es- 
pecially during  the  last  few  centuries,  and  will 
apparently  soon  be  imiversal.  His  kingdom, 
power,  and  glory  are  the  same,  whether  He  was 
of  earthly  or  heavenly  origin. 

The  "open  sesame"  to  a  broad  and  consistent 
interpretation  of  the  Holy  Bible  and  honest  ob- 
servance of  its  ethics,  is  to  be  foimd  in  the  short 
but  sublime  and  all  comprehensive  creed  of  the 
Prophet  Micah.^  "What  is  it,  O  man,  that  thy 
Lord  doth  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to 
love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?" 
Just  before^  the  prophet  said:  "Will  the  Lord  be 
pleased  with  ten  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten 
thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give  my  first- 
bom  for  my  transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body 

1  Micah,  chap,  vi,  verse  8. 
^  Micah,  chap,  vi,  verse  7. 


The  Trinity  215 

for  the  sin  of  my  soul?"  This  summary  of  our 
whole  duty  to  God  and  men,  and  condemnation  of 
all  sacrifices,  is  a  negation  of  all  dogmas,  rites,  and 
mysteries  which  seek  to  make  any  other  condi- 
tions and  requisites  for  religious  justification 
than  merely  walking  himibly  with  God,  as  best  we 
know  how;  a  creed  vastly  grander  and  more 
comprehensive  than  the  Athanasian,  Nicene, 
the  so-called  Apostles',  or  any  other  sectarian 
formula  limiting  God's  sovereignty  and  man's 
opportunities.  It  is  world-wide  and  imiversal, 
infolding  in  its  divine  circle  of  grace,  Jews  and 
Gentiles,  all  nations  and  faiths  who  will  live  up  to 
those  precepts.  All  other  dogmas  of  religion  are 
unnecessary.  The  Ten  Commandments  of  Moses, 
the  Sermon  on  Moimt  of  Olives,  and  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  the  sublimest  ever  uttered,  are  only  ex- 
emplifications of  Micah's  creed.  Whatever  in  the 
pages  of  Holy  Scripture  will  stand  the  test  of  and 
square  with  Micah's  creed  and  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  with  rational  conceptions  of  infinite  power, 
omniscience,  omnipresence,  and  love,  we  believe 
is  inspired  of  God,  and  whatsoever  is  not  in  har- 
mony with  such  tests  is  only  of  man.  Such  is 
our  creed,  so  we  hold.  So  we  understand  the 
Bible  and  its  every  page.  The  creed  of  Micah 
came  surely  from  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  to  the 
honest,  fearless  seeker  after  truth,  the  Holy  Spirit 
will  surely  illuminate  everything  in  the  Bible  as 
truth,   or    error  inspiration,   or   non-inspiration. 


2i6  Evolution  of  Religions 

Holding  to  such  creed  as  our  sure  anchor,  the 
Doctrine  of  the  Inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
enunciated  by  Dr.  Briggs,  is  correct,  but  with- 
out such  test  and  anchor  of  faith,  it  may,  to  the 
sectary  and  fanatic,  be  a  mere  "Ignis  Fatuus. " 
It  does  not  make  much  difference,  so  long  as  a 
man's  faith  is  anchored  upon  such  a  rock,  what 
his  mere  theoretical  religion  may  be,  if  he  honestly 
and  diligently  seeks  the  truth,  and  in  all  things 
lives  up  to  the  best  light  he  has.  A  very  good 
creed  also  is  one  said  to  be  that  of  the  Rev.  John 
Watson,  an  able  writer  whose  literary  cognomen 
is  "Ian  Maclaren, "  of  Liverpool,  England,  for- 
merly, if  not  now,  a  Presbyterian  minister:  "I 
believe  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  I  believe  in 
the  words  of  Jesus.  I  believe  in  the  pure  heart. 
I  believe  in  the  service  of  love.  I  believe  in  the 
unworldly  life.  I  believe  in  the  beatitudes.  I 
promise  to  trust  God  and  follow  Christ,  to  forgive 
my  enemies,  and  to  seek  after  the  righteousness  of 
God."  What  more  is  required?  It  is  the  duty 
of  every  hiiman  being  and  his  privilege,  too,  to 
follow  his  convictions  of  truth,  when  his  mind  is  in 
a  sane  and  normal  condition,  wherever  such 
convictions  may  lead  him  amidst  the  infinite 
varieties  of  life's  duties,  always  following  justice 
and  mercy,  and  doing  no  wrong  to  any  of  his 
fellow-beings.  The  best  and  truest  religion,  the 
divine  one,  is  the  religion  which  makes  men  and 
women  happiest  and  best,  most  pure,  unselfish. 


The  Trinity  217 

and  useful  in  their  daily  lives  and  conduct.  Such 
is  the  test  of  true  religion.  Such  religion  is  the 
safe  one  for  time,  safe  for  eternity,  and  it  needs 
no  creed  made  out  of  old  dogmas  to  hedge  it 
aroimd. 


CHAPTER   XI 

RELIGIOUS   MISCELLANIES 

FURTHER  considering  the  internal  evidences 
of  biblical  plenary  inspiration,  it  should 
be  said  that  while  the  Bible  is  a  storehouse  of 
grand  and  sublime  truths,  scintillating  like  dia- 
monds, throughout  all  its  pages,  yet  even  in  the 
sphere  of  ethical  teachings  there  are  some  defects 
in  it  which  are  not  in  harmony  with  the  character 
of  God  as  taught  therein,  and  hence  cannot  be 
inspired.  For  instance,  God  would  hardly  have 
directed  the  Israelites,  as  we  are  told  in  Exodus,^ 
to  borrow  vessels  of  gold  and  jewels  of  silver  from 
their  Egyptian  neighbors  under  the  specious 
promise  of  returning  them  after  they  should  come 
back  from  a  three  days'  journey,  for  a  picnic,  into 
the  wilderness  of  Arabia,  when  it  was  well  known 
to  the  Israelites  that  this  was  a  false  pretense,  and 
that  the  real  purpose  was  to  rob  the  Egyptians. 
Moral  ideas,  the  distinction  between  Meum  and 
Tuum,  were  not  highly  developed  in  those  days, 
and  Moses  seemed  to  imagine  that  God  was  as 
ready  to  plunder  the  Egyptians  as  His  people 
were,  and,  therefore,  he  said  so.     They  had,  it  is 

'  Exodus,  chaps,  xi  and  xii. 
218 


Religious  Miscellanies  219 

true,  been  heavily  oppressed  and  wronged  for  a 
few  years,  but  the  sons  of  Ham  had  given  them 
homes  and  lands  several  hundreds  of  years  before, 
had  fed  their  starving  bands  of  nomads,  and  been 
very  kind  to  them.  The  memory  of  those  bene- 
factions and  good  treatment,  until  the  one 
Pharaoh  reigned  who  "knew  not"  Joseph,  ought 
to  have  kept  the  Hebrews  from  deceitfully  robbing 
them. 

It  is  not  possible,  at  any  rate,  that  God  directed 
them  to  get  even  with  their  oppressors  through 
such  deception  and  false  pretenses. 

There  are  many  other  inconsistencies  and  im- 
perfections of  character  ascribed  to  God,  many 
expressions  of  merely  human  passions,  feelings  of 
cruelty,  hatred,  vengeance.  Many  contradictory 
eniinciations  of  moral  obligations  and  purposes, 
which  we  instinctively  feel  could  not  have  been 
expressed  by  God,  and  hence  must  be  either  per- 
versions of  His  commands,  or  merely  interpola- 
tions or  expressions  of  the  feelings  and  passions 
of  the  writers.  To  sustain  these  statements,  we 
do  not  need  to  go  to  outside  reviews  or  commen- 
taries, but  to  the  "Law  and  Testimony"  itself. 
God  is  ever  one  and  the  same,  always  consistent, 
changeless,  and  can  never  under  any  circumstances 
be  influenced  by  or  give  utterance  to  base  and 
cruel  human  feelings  and  passions,  and  wherever 
in  the  pages  of  the  Bible  He  is  represented  as  so 
influenced,  it  is  not  inspiration  from  Him,  but 


220 


Evolution  of  Religions 


merely  human  conceptions  of  Deity  which,  are  so 
portrayed.  We  do  not  here  refer  to  expressions  in 
the  Bible  of  God's  hatred  of  sin,  which  is  fre- 
quently conveyed  in  very  forcible  language,  in 
order  to  emphasize  His  abhorrence  of  evil,  but  to 
commands  ascribed  directly  to  Him,  which  teach 
cruelty  and  vengeance,  feelings  which  an  infin- 
itely holy  and  merciful  being  cannot  have; 
commands  which  He  could  not  give.  We  will 
illustrate  our  views  by  a  few  parallel  texts  out  of 
many  which  might  be  selected,  involving  contra- 
dictory moral  commands  and  purposes  to  God. 


Exodus  V,  I.  And 
afterwards  Moses  and 
Aaron  went  in  and  told 
Pharaoh,  Thus  saith  the 
Lord  God  of  Israel. 

Let  my  people  go,  that 
they  may  hold  a  feast 
imto  me  in  the  wilderness. 


Exodus  XX,  13.  Thou 
shalt  not  kill. 

Exodus  xxii,  21,  22. 
Thou  shalt  neither  vex 
a  stranger,  nor  oppress 
him :  for  ye  were  strangers 


Exodus  X,  20.  But  the 
Lord  hardened  Pharaoh's 
heart,  so  that  he  would 
not  let  the  children  of 
Israel  go. 

Exodus  xi,  10.  And 
Moses  and  Aaron  did  all 
these  wonders  before 
Pharaoh:  and  the  Lord 
hardened  Pharaoh's 

heart,  so  that  he  would 
not  let  the  children  of 
Israel  go  out  of  his  land. 

Deuteronomy  ii,  34. 
And  we  took  all  his 
cities  at  that  time,  and 
utterl)'-  destroyed  the 
men,  and  the  women  and 
the  little  ones,  of  every 


Religious  Miscellanies  221 


in  the  land  of  Egypt. 
Ye  shall  not  afflict  any 
widow  or  fatherless 
child. 

Psalm  xxxiii,  45.  For 
the  word  of  the  Lord  is 
right;  and  all  His  works 
are  done  in  truth.  He 
loveth  righteousness  and 
judgment:  the  earth  is 
full  of  the  goodness  of  the 
Lord. 


Psalm  XXX vi,  7.  How 
excellent  is  Thy  lov- 
ing kindness,  O  God! 
Therefore  the  children  of 
men  put  their  trust  under 
the  shadow  of  Thy  wing. 

James  v,  11.  The 
Lord  is  very  pitiful,  and 
of  tender  mercy.  Mat- 
thew V,  44-45.  ^'^^  ^ 
say  unto  you,  Love  your 
enemies,  bless  them  that 
curse  you,  do  good  to 
them  that  hate  you,  and 
pray  for  them  which  de- 
spitefully   use   you,    and 


city,  we  left  none  to  re- 
main. 


Deut.  iii,  2.  And  the 
Lord  said  unto  me;  .  .  . 
and  thou  shall  do  tmto 
him,  as  thou  didst  unto 
Sihon,  King  of  the  Amor- 
ites.  Joshua  vi,  21. 
And  they  utterly  de- 
stroyed all  that  was  in  the 
cityj  both  man  and  wo- 
man, young  and  old, 
with  the  edge  of  the 
sword. 

Joshua  viii,  r-2-24. 
And  the  Lord  said  unto 
Joshua  .  .  .  Thou  shalt 
do  to  Ai  and  her  king  as 
thou  didst  unto  Jericho 
and  her  king.  .  .  .  And 
all  the  Lsraelites  returned 
unto  Ai  and  smote  it 
with  the  edge  of  the 
sword.  .  .  .  And  Joshua 
burnt  Ai,  and  made  it  a 
heap  forever,  even  a  deso- 
lation unto  this  day  (v.  28). 

ist  Samuel  xv,  2,  3. 
Thus  saith  the  Lord  .  .  . 
Now  go  and  smite  Ama- 


222 


Evolution  of  Religions 


persecute  you;  that  ye 
may  be  the  children  of 
your  Father  which  is  in 
heaven;  for  He  maketh 
His  sun  to  rise  on  the  evil 
and  the  good,  and  send- 
eth  rain  on  the  just  and 
unjust. 

ist  Corinthians  xiii,  13. 
And  now  abideth  faith, 
hope,  love,  these  three; 
but  the  greatest  of 
these  is  love  verse  8. 
Love  never  faileth:  but 
whether  there  be  prophe- 
cies, they  shall  be  done 
away;  whether  there  be 
tongues,  they  shall  cease; 
whether  there  be  knowl- 
edge, it  shall  be  done 
away. 

Ecclesiastes  iii,  19-20. 
For  that  which  befall- 
eth  the  sons  of  men  be- 
falleth  beasts;  even  one 
thing  befalleth  them;  as 
the  one  dieth,  so  dieth 
the  other;  yea,  they  have 
all  one  breath;  so  that  a 
man  hath  no  preemi- 
nence above  a  beast :  for 


lek  and  utterly  destroy  all 
that  they  have,  and  spare 
them  not;  but  slay  both 
man  and  woman,  infant 
and  suckling,  ox  and 
sheep,  camel  and  ass. 


Psalm  cix,  7,  8,  9,  10. 
When  he  shall  be 
judged,  let  him  be  con- 
demned: and  let  his 
prayer  become  sin.  Let 
his  days  be  few;  and  let 
another  take  his  office. 
Let  his  children  be  father- 
less, and  his  wife  a  widow. 
Let  his  children  be  con- 
tinually vagabonds  and 
beg:  let  them  seek  their 
bread  also  out  of  their 
desolate  places. 

ist  Corinthians  xv,  22. 
For  as  in  Adam  all  die, 
even  so  in  Christ  shall  all 
be    made    alive. 

Verse  53.  For  this 
corruptible  must  put  on 
incorruption,  and  this 
mortal  shall  put  on  im- 
mortality. St.  John  V, 
25.    Verily,  verily,  I    say 


Religious  Miscellanies  223 

all  is  vanity.  All  go  un-  unto  you,  the  hour  is 
to  one  place;  all  are  of  coming  and  now  is,  when 
the  dust,  and  all  turn  to  the  dead  shall  hear  the 
dust  again.  voice  of  the  Son  of  God: 

and  they  that  hear  shall 

live. 

These,  with  many  other  selections  which  might 
be  noted,  prove  that  though  most  are,  all  the 
teachings  of  the  Bible  are  not  inspired,  because 
some  are  contradictory,  evil,  and  inconsistent 
with  the  holy  attributes  of  deity,  love,  mercy, 
truth,  and  infinite  compassion  for  the  erring. 
Other  inconsistencies  and  incongruities  may  be 
noted.  After  the  brutal,  adulterous  crime  of 
David,  King  of  Israel,  with  Bathsheba,  the  beau- 
tiful wife  of  Uriah  the  Hittite,  and  the  cowardly 
betrayal  to  death  by  the  adulterer:  of  her  brave 
husband  while  he  was  in  David's  army  fighting 
for  his  king  and  country,  it  is  hardly  conceivable 
that  God  through  His  prophets  ever  afterwards 
(though  the  king  may  have  repented  of  that  and 
other  crimes)  should  always,  without  qualification, 
speak  of  David  as  "  a  man  after  God's  own  heart."  * 
Another  dark  crime  of  David  was  the  cruel  murder, 
by  the  Gibeonites,  by  his  participation,  of  the 
seven  innocent  sons  of  Rizpah,  and  of  Milcah, 
who  was  once  his  wife.  A  most  barbarous  deed, 
and  Samuel,  or  whoever  wrote  the   books,  inti- 

*  Book  of  Kinsrs  and  Chronicles. 


224  Evolution  of  Religions 

mates  that  it  was  by  God's  orders.*  The  world 
has  been  full  of  crime  and  bloodshed  since  the  be- 
ginning of  time,  and  while  God  for  inscrutable 
reasons  has  permitted  it,  yet  I  will  never  believe 
that  He  ordered  evil  to  be  done. 

Even  some  of  the  great  Nazarene's  teachings 
seem  unreasonable  and  can  hardly  have  been  cor- 
rectly reported  or  translated,  imless  intended  for 
conditions  of  society  such  as  we  imagine  will  be 
in  the  millennial  age.  In  fact,  the  universal  love, 
the  total  unselfishness,  manifested  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Moimt  of  Olives,  though  in  entire  harmony 
with  Jesus'  nature  and  character,  were  hardly  ex- 
pected by  Him  to  be  the  practical  rules  of  life  in 
that  age,  but  were  intended  for  man's  life  in  the 
kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  such  as  He  expected 
it  to  be  in  the  future  when  men  "  shall  beat  their 
swords  into  plowshares  and  their  spears  into 
pruning  hooks ;  nation  shall  not  lift  up  the  sword 
against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any 
more,"  and  "when  the  lion  and  the  lamb  shall 
lie  down  together  and  a  little  child  shall  lead  them." 
Is  it  possible  that  for  merely  saying  to  his  brother, 
"Thou  fool,"  one  would  be  in  danger  of  hell's  fire 
as  the  term  is  ordinarily  imderstood?  The  time 
may  come  when  a  man  could  meekly  turn  his 
other  cheek  for  another  blow  when  struck  by  a 
ruffian  on  one  cheek  without  inviting  plimder,  per- 
secution, and  even  death  from  all  the  wicked,  as 

1  Second  Samuel,  chap,  xxi,  verses  i-io  inclusive. 


Religious  Miscellanies  225 

the  world  has  always  been,  but  he  could  hardly 
safely  to  himself  and  family  do  so  now.  Or 
when  despoiled  by  a  robber  of  his  cloak,  cheer- 
fully give  him  his  coat  also!  To  so  act,  meekly 
and  humbly,  one  would  have  to  love  his  neighbor, 
not  only  as  well,  but  better  than  himself,  which 
Jesus  did  not  teach.  He  died  for  the  salvation 
of  men.  Others  have  given  up  their  lives  for  the 
common  welfare  of  their  kindred  or  cotmtrymen, 
but  we  are  not  taught  ordinarily  to  seek  or  invite 
persecution  and  death.  Some  of  these  teachings 
scarcely  emanated  from  Jesus  as  broadly  and  un- 
qualified as  the  evangelists  wrote  them. 

It  is  said  Christians  are  not  expected  to  obey 
those  injunctions,  and  others  similar  to  them, 
literally,  and  that  they  are  not  to  be  understood 
as  literal  requirements  of  duty  in  daily  life,  but 
merely  as  strongly  teaching  and  enforcing  the  great 
duties  of  humility,  moderation,  charity,  and  pa- 
tience under  wrongs.  Possibly,  and  Jesus  no 
doubt  wished  to  enforce  as  He  illustrated,  in  Him- 
self, ordinarily,  those  virtues.  But  even  He, 
though  usually  meek  and  gentle,  was  not  always 
so.  Sternly  and  fiercely  He  drove  with  cords  the 
money  changers  and  gamblers  out  of  the  Temple, 
and  His  terrible  denunciation  of  the  scribes, 
priests,  and  Pharisees  '  for  their  corruption,  hypo- 
crisy, selfishness,  and  bigotry,  has  never  been 
excelled  in  bitterness.     The  early  Christians  we 

*  Matthew,  chap,  xxiii. 


226  Evolution  of  Religions 

know  in  Jesus'  time,  and  long  afterwards  from 
the  Evangelists,  Book  of  Acts,  and  traditions, 
were  practically  socialists  or  communists,  and 
had  all  things  in  common,  and,  of  course,  those 
who  lived  in  that  way  could  and  would  be  more 
imselfish,  kindly,  and  tolerant  to  each  other  than 
if  living  in  ordinary  conditions  of  society.  They 
would  naturally  give  to  the  teachings  of  the  Master 
upon  all  social  subjects  a  wide  latitude  among 
themselves,  an  interpretation  not  intended  for  the 
world  at  large 

Enthusiastic  followers  after  His  death  most 
likely  exaggerated  His  teachings  on  some  ques- 
tions beyond  their  practical  lines.  He  could 
hardly  have  said  broadly,  and  with  literal  exact- 
ness, "that  it  was  easier  for  a  camel  to  pass 
through  the  eye  of  a  needle  than  for  a  rich  man  to 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  for,  if  so,  no  man 
of  wealth  could  be  saved.  Its  practical  applica- 
tion might  suit  the  early  Christians  who  had  "all 
things  in  common."  "Neither  was  there  any 
among  them  that  lacked,  for  as  many  as  were 
possessors  of  land  or  houses  sold  them  and  brought 
the  prices  of  the  things  that  were  sold,  and  laid 
them  down  at  the  apostles'  feet,  and  distribution 
was  made  to  every  man  according  as  he  had 
need."  ^  What  would  Christ  have  said  to  myriads 
of  the  Croesuses  of  the  church  militant  since  His 
day?     What  would  He  have  said  to  many  of  His 

*  Acts,  chap,  iv,  verses  32,  34,  35. 


Religious  Miscellanies  227 

vicegerents,  pontiffs  of  Rome,  who  had  in  the 
Aliddle  Ages  greater  incomes  than  many  sovereigns 
of  Europe,  and  some  of  whom  left  immense  wealth, 
mostly  wrung  from  the  poor  laity,  to  their  rela- 
tives, and  in  a  few  instances  even  to  their  illegiti- 
mate children  ?  Or  to  the  archbishops  and  bishops 
of  the  Church  of  England  of  to-day,  who  have  sal- 
aries of  fifty  thousand  dollars  and  twenty-five  thou- 
sand dollars  annually,  who  live  in  Episcopal  pal- 
aces, and  are  waited  upon  and  served  by  liveried 
attendants?  Jesus'  teachings  upon  social  matters 
were  evidently  for  a  future  time,  or  conditions  of  the 
world,  when  the  "  knowledge  of  God  should  cover 
the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  seas; "  when  all 
men  should  live  up  to  the  doctrine  of  the  Golden 
Rule,  when  all  should  be  in  truth  brothers  and 
sisters,  and  "when  none  should  harm  or  annoy 
others  in  all  God's  holy  mountain." 

Whenever  and  wherever  the  unlimited  doctrines 
of  non-resistance  and  of  people  enjoying  all  things 
in  common,  excepting  upon  a  small  scale,  have 
been  even  partially  put  into  practice  in  religious, 
socialistic,  or  communistic  experiments,  the  re- 
sults have  been  unfortunate,  resulting  neither  in 
public  nor  private  good.  Besides,  such  rules  of  life 
literally  imderstood  are  at  variance  with  other 
teachings  of  the  Bible.  Many  of  the  good  men  of 
old,  patriarchs  and  kings,  who  were  high  in  God's 
favor  were  very  rich.  Some  of  them  are  com- 
mended by  Jesus. 


228  Evolution  of  Religions 

In  the  Book  of  Proverbs,  we  are  enjoined  most 
forcibly  to  resist  the  tyrannical,  wicked,  and  ex- 
tortionate, and  taught  as  among  our  highest  duties 
to  be  industrious,  frugal,  and  economical,  in  order 
that  we  may  provide  for  our  families  in  comfort 
and  lay  up  a  competency  for  old  age.  St.  Paul 
says  that,  "  He  who  provides  not  for  his  own,  and 
especially  for  those  of  his  own  household,  is  worse 
than  an  infidel."  ^ 

In  the  medieval  ages  the  grasping  clergy  dwelt 
much  in  their  sermons  upon  the  futility  of  the  rich 
endeavoring  to  get  to  heaven,  and  thousands  of  the 
wealthy  kings,  princes,  barons,  and  merchants 
were  only  absolved  upon  their  dying  beds  upon 
making  bequests  of  their  lands  and  moneys  to 
build  magnificent  cathedrals  and  churches  and 
endow  monastic  institutions,  or  provide  rich  in- 
comes for  lordly  ecclesiastics. 

The  Bible  contains  the  grandest  religion  and 
much  of  the  most  important  and  ancient  history 
of  any  book  in  the  world.  It  was  compiled  from 
the  writings  of  great  prophets,  statesmen,  warriors, 
poets,  priests,  and  philosophers,  "  holy  men  of  old," 
and  yet  some  of  them  entertained  very  singular 
and  diverse  opinions  on  many  important  subjects.^ 
Ecclesiastes,  chaps,  ii  and  iii,  teaches  the  doc- 
trines of  Diogenes  and  the  Stoics,  and  annihilation 
after  death.     This  was  the  tenet  of  the  Sadducees. 

*  Timothy,  chap,  v,  verse  8. 
'  Ecclesiastes,  chaps,  ii  and  iii. 


Religious  Miscellanies  229 

A  later  chapter,  v,-  teaches  the  Epicurean  philo- 
sophy. Jesus  taught  always  free  agency.  Paul 
taught  fatalism,  election,  predestination.  ' '  Nay 
but,  O  man,  who  art  thou  that  repliest  against 
God?  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to  Him  who 
formed  it.  Why  hast  thou  made  me  thus  ?  Hath 
not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay  of  the  same 
lump  to  make  one  vessel  unto  honor  and  another 
unto  dishonor?  "  ^ 

The  Old  Testament  nowhere  in  its  pages,  ex- 
cepting by  remote  inference,  in  about  the  same 
terms  as  the  Analects  of  Confucius,  cheers  us  with 
the  hope  of  immortality  and  eternal  happiness, 
while  the  New  Testament  on  almost  every  page  is 
full  of  it.  Jesus  Christ  really  was  the  first  prophet 
who  "brought  life  and  immortality  to  light"  in 
Israel,  though  the  Essenes  and  Pharisees  be- 
lieved in  it  in  a  way  before  His  time.  The  Bible 
is  a  many-sided  book,  and  those  inconsistent  doc- 
trines, though  set  forth  amidst  other  sublime 
ethics,  cannot  all  be  inspired,  whatever  creeds  and 
ecclesiastics  and  councils  of  the  Church  may  teach. 
Hence  only  the  absolute  truths  as  to  God  and  His 
attributes  (as  ass-umed  in  the  beginning  of  this 
book)  of  eternal  life  and  eternal  ethics  are  from 
God.  But  much  of  it  is  of  man  and  from  man 
only,  and  what  is  of  man  is  sometimes  inconsistent 
and  erring,  as  all  human  teachings  are  liable  to  be, 

*  Ecclesiastes,  chap.  v. 

'  Romans,  chap.  ix.  verses  20-21. 


230  Evolution  of  Religions 

The  Bible  purports  to  come  from  God  and  be  a  rev- 
elation of  His  will  to  mankind,  and  as  such,  coming 
through  man  only,  it  naturally  challenges  the 
most  rigorous  criticism  and  investigation  of  its 
claims.  Explicitly,  often  in  its  pages,  it  invites  all 
to  "  search  the  Scriptures  and  hold  fast  to  all  that 
is  good,"  and  hence  by  implication  to  reject  any- 
thing in  it  that  may  be  found  inconsistent  with 
its  great  cardinal  truths.  Its  messages  are  predi- 
cated for  eternity  as  well  as  for  time,  and  those 
really  from  God,  all  wise  and  perfect,  must  all  be 
consistent  with  each  other,  and  whatsoever  is  not 
so  consistent  we  have  a  right  to  pronounce  of 
mortal  inspiration  only. 

What  Jesus  taught  of  social  duties  in  His  ser- 
mon on  the  mountain  was  fully  as  beautifully  and 
more  comprehensively  expressed  by  the  apostle 
Paul  when  he  said :  "  If  I  speak  with  the  tongues  of 
men  and  of  angels,  but  have  not  ove,  I  am  become 
(as)  sounding  brass  (and)  a  clanging  cymbal. 
And  if  I  have  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  know  all 
mysteries  and  all  knowledge,  and  if  I  have  all 
faith,  so  as  to  be  able  to  remove  moimtains,  but 
have  not  love,  I  am  nothing.  And  if  I  bestow  all 
my  goods  to  feed  the  poor,  and  if  I  give  my  body 
to  be  burned,  but  have  not  love,  it  profiteth  me 
nothing.  Love  suffereth  long  and  is  kind;  love 
envieth  not ;  love  vaunteth  not  itself,  is  not  puffed 
up,  doth  not  behave  itself  unseemly,  seeketh  not 
its  own,  is  not  easily  provoked ;  taketh  not  account 


Religious  Miscellanies  231 

of  evil;  rejoiceth  not  in  unrighteousness,  but  re- 
joiceth  with  the  truth;  beareth  all  things,  believ- 
eth  all  things,  hopeth  all  things,  endureth  all 
things.  Love  never  faileth,  but  whether  there  be 
prophecies,  they  shall  be  done  away;  whether 
there  be  tongues,  they  shall  cease ; "  whether  there 
be  knowledge,  it  shall  be  done  away.*  "Finally, 
brethren,  whatsoever  things  are  true,  whatsoever 
things  are  honorable,  whatsoever  things  are  just, 
whatsoever  things  are  pure,  whatsoever  things  are 
lovely,  whatsoever  things  are  of  good  report,  if 
there  be  any  virtue  and  if  there  be  any  praise, 
think   on   these   things."^ 

*  First  Corinthians,  chap,  xiii,  verses  i  to  8  inclusive. 
'  Philippians,  chap,  iv,  verse  8. 


CHAPTER  XII 

SECOND   ADVENTISTS   AND   CONNECTION   OF 
SECRET  ORDERS    WITH    THE    SUPER- 
NATURAL  IN    RELIGIONS 

NEARLY  all  of  the  human  race,  and  espe- 
cially of  the  uneducated,  love  mystery  and 
the  marvelous,  and  more  readily  believe  stories 
tinctured  with  such  fascinations  than  honest, 
prosaic,  logical  truths.  Poetic  fictions  are  wel- 
comed when  sober  history  is  often  discarded. 
The  Book  of  Daniel  and  the  Book  of  Revela- 
tion, the  first  a  historical,  prophetic  fiction, 
written  by  an  imknown  author,  after  the  death 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  when  his  great  empire 
was  partitioned  up  among  his  four  generals, 
Antipater,  Seleucus,  Ptolemy,  and  Antigonus, 
and  the  other  merely  ecstatic  religious  dreams 
of  the  holy  enthusiast  St.  John,  during  his  banish- 
ment to  the  lone  Isle  of  Patmos  in  the  eastern 
Mediterranean,  have  afforded  the  bases  of  a 
thousand  predictions  by  fanatics,  generally  com- 
bined from  both  those  books,  and  supported 
often  by  weary  mazes  of  learned  arithmetical, 
mathematical,  and  astronomical  calculations,  of 
the  near  approach  of  the  end  of  the  world  and  the 

232 


Second  Adventists  233 

judgment  day  in  each  of  the  centuries  since  the 
crucifixion  of  Christ.  It  was  believed  by  His 
disciples  that  those  events  would  occur  not 
many  years  after  His  ascension.^ 

Even  Grecian  sibylline  oracles  and  astrologi- 
cal star  combinations  and  calculations,  in  the 
early  centuries  of  Christianity,  used  to  play  a 
part  in  such  predictions.  The  disciples  of  Christ, 
as  we  know  from  the  Gospels,  Revelation,  and 
Epistles,  and  from  traditions  and  fragments  of 
history,  believed  that  day  was  imminent.  Soon 
after  the  departure  of  the  Savior  from  earth,  and 
probably  in  the  lifetime  of  some  of  the  Apostles, 
His  second  advent  was  expected  and  frequently 
afterwards  for  centuries.  In  Matthew  xxiv,  29- 
51,  Mark  xiii,  6-37,  Luke  xxi,  25-36,  the  speedy 
coming  of  that  day  was  undoubtedly  heralded. 
About  the  year  1000  a.d.,  the  whole  Christian 
world  was  convulsed  with  terror  on  accoimt  of 
predictions  that  the  end  of  all  things  terrestrial 
and  the  second  coming  of  Jesus  was  at  hand, 
accompanied  as  those  predictions  were  by  irre- 
fragable demonstrations  of  arithmetical  proofs, 
from  prophecies,  from  the  books  of  Daniel  and 
Revelation,  mainly  based  upon  the  chaining  of 
Satan,  and  the  casting  of  the  great  arch-enemy 
of  man   into  the  bottomless  pit.^ 

In    my    time,    and    I    remember    exceedingly 

*  Matthew,  ch.  xxiv. 

'  Revelation,  ch.  xx,  vs.  1-3. 


234  Evolution  of  Religions 

well,  the  almost  universal  consternation  and 
alarm  which  the  predictions  of  Rev.  Wm.  Miller, 
an  Adventist,  formerly  a  Baptist  minister,  pro- 
duced all  over  the  United  States.  He  pro- 
claimed that  the  end  of  the  world  and  final 
judgment  would  surely  come  on  April  19,  1843. 
It  was  wonderful.  Thousands  of  people  became 
insane,  brooding  over  the  near  coming  of  the 
dreadful  day.  Many  committed  suicide.  Singu- 
lar as  it  may  seem,  nearly  all  those  who  did  so 
were  professed  Christians  who  naturally  ought 
to  have  rejoiced  at  the  prospect  of  meeting 
their  Savior. 

I  was  young,  but  was  not  much  perturbed, 
and  wondered  why  good  people  should  go  insane, 
or  what  suicides  would  gain  or  evade,  even  if 
the  great  judgment  and  conflagration  of  the 
earth,  which  I  doubted  much,  were  near  at  hand. 
A  wonderful  comet  appearing  in  the  south- 
western heavens  early  in  March  of  that  spring 
and  swiftly  looming  up  from  the  horizon  and 
moving  rapidly  imtil  its  nucleus  was  near  the 
zenith,  and  its  dark,  sword-like  tail  far  down 
in  the  sky,  added  greatly  to  the  general  alarm; 
certainly  presaging,  as  many  believed,  the  com- 
ing dread  catastrophe,  and  bringing  sure  con- 
firmation to  the  predictions.  All  the  church 
services  for  many  months  previously  were  crowded, 
and  very  numerous  conversions  occurred.  Many 
thousands  of  people  in  various  parts  of  the  coun- 


Second  Adventists  235 

try,  principally  in  the  middle  States  of  New 
York,  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Maryland,  Virginia, 
and  Tennessee,  abandoned  farms,  shops,  and 
offices  and  quit  business  in  order  to  get  ready 
for  the  coming  of  the  Lord.  ]\Iany  families 
abandoned  their  homes  for  weeks  before  the 
predicted  time,  and  went  into  mountain  hills 
and  caves.  Thousands  of  people  near  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  and  Buffalo,  New  York,  assembled  on  the 
lake  shores  on  the  morning  of  the  supposed  last 
day,  dressed  in  ascension  garments,  ready  to 
meet  their  Lord  in  the  air.  But  the  day  passed 
and  nothing  happened.  IMiller,  it  was  said, 
found  that  he  had  made  a  mistake  in  his  calcu- 
lations, revised  them,  and  fixed  upon  another 
day  in  the  early  ensuing  summer.  But  the 
great  day  had  passed.  The  prophet  had  lost  his 
prestige,  and  but  little  attention  was  paid  to  his 
revised  calculations  or  prophecies.  It  was  said 
that  believing  his  interpretation  of  prophecies 
and  calculations  therefrom  were  correct,  he  lost 
faith  in  the  Bible  and  became  a  skeptic. 

Oh!  the  folly  and  credulity  of  human  beings! 
What  absurdities  in  the  name  of  religion  will  they 
not  believe!  In  what  weird  and  mystical  rites, 
doctrines,  secret  orders,  monastic  legends,  super- 
natural delusions,  through  faith  will  they  not 
imite  and  adopt!  The  world,  at  least  the  Chris- 
tian world,  is  even  now  full  of  Second  Advent- 
ists' trashy  books  and  wild  millennial  predictions. 


236  Evolution  of  Religions 

Many  times  during  the  past  nineteen  hundred 
years  has  it  been  disturbed  and  frequently  almost 
convulsed  by  such  delusions.  After  the  failure 
of  each  successive  prediction,  the  prophets  were 
discarded  and  discounted  only  to  make  room  for 
new  ones  in  each  century,  to  appear  with  a  new 
installment  of  "end  of  the  world"  prophecies, 
and  those  in  turn,  in  a  few  years,  to  be  again 
dishonored  and  forgotten.  So  in  all  probability 
the  future  will  produce  more  such  prophets,  to 
be  followed  and  believed  in  by  other  idiots  for  a 
time. 

The  latest  collapse  of  such  schemes  and  schem- 
ers, and  perhaps  of  brazen  religious  humbuggery, 
was  the  "heaven"  of  a  so-called  messiah  and  son 
of  God,  whose  human  name  is  Swinefurth,  lately 
existing  for  a  dozen  or  more  years  (a  short  time 
ago  disrupted  and  its  inmates  scattered)  at  Rock- 
ford,  Illinois.  But  enough  of  Adventists.  So, 
despite  them  and  their  prophecies,  springtime  and 
summer,  autumn  and  winter,  seedtime  and 
harvest,  which  the  good  God  gives  us,  will  doubt- 
less continue  in  their  regular  succession  and 
courses;  generation  after  generation  of  human 
beings  be  bom,  love,  live,  and  die,  and  all  the 
turmoils  and  vanities  of  men  go  on,  as  in  the  past, 
through  countless  ages,  imtil  the  earth  may  grow 
old  and  worn  out,  and  become  a  lifeless  planet, 
only  filled  with  sepulchers,  with  none  to  weep 
over    departed  friends.     Whether  it  will  become 


Second  Adventists  237 

such  a  dead  world  as  the  moon  is  now  supposed, 
by  scientists,  to  be,  or  else,  through  the  ceaseless 
influences  of  insufficiently  counterbalanced  cen- 
tripetal attraction,  may  in  its  lessening  orbit 
gradually  swing  too  closely  to  the  sim  and  be 
absorbed  by  gravitation  in  its  limitless  ocean  of 
electric  fires,  the  great  God  only  knows. 

History  teaches  that,  when  any  great  religious 
movement  has  become  successfully  developed, 
its  priestly  hierarchy,  influenced  partly  by  reli- 
gious enthusiasm,  and  largely  through  love  of 
power,  place,  and  wealth,  have  used  all  manner 
of  agencies  and  influences  to  dominate  the  minds 
of  men,  and  permanently  establish  their  control 
of  the  people,  ostensibly  for  religious  purposes, 
but  really  for  the  permanence  of  their  power. 
Of  course,  many  of  the  clergy  of  all  religions  are 
good,  honest  men.  The  more  ignorant  men  are, 
the  greater  usually  is  their  veneration  for  the 
ministers  of  religion  and  belief  in  their  superior 
sanctity.  Hence  the  power  of  the  priesthood  is 
the  more  easily  retained,  and  naturally  the 
revenues  and  donations  obtained  from  the  laity 
for  salaries,  churches,  endowments  of  bishoprics, 
parochial  homes,  and  manifold  other  religious 
purposes,  become  larger.  For  centuries  during 
the  Middle  Ages,  nearly  one  half  of  the  property 
in  Europe,  especially  landed  estates,  had  become 
absorbed  by,  and  was  owned  or  under  the  con- 
trol  of,  religious   and   monastic   orders,  bishops 


238  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  other  clergy  of  the  Catholic  Church,  And 
in  order,  more  completely  to  hold  and  retain 
their  control  over  the  popular  mind,  the  design- 
ing and  artful  ecclesiastics  of  all  religions,  anciently 
established  secret  conclaves  or  orders,  in  which 
the  initiates  were  taught  mystic  and  super- 
natural legends  of  the  faith,  and  bound  by  many 
rites  and  obligations,  sometimes  of  a  fearful 
character,  to  believe  in  and  be  faithful  to  the 
creed  and  hierarchy.  Ostensibly  those  secret 
orders  may  not  have  been  publicly  announced 
as  established  for  such  purposes,  but  usually 
their  organization  was  so  designed  by  the  domi- 
nant hierarchy  and  under  its  control.  Such 
orders  were  always  more  or  less  groimded  upon 
superstition  and  supematuralism. 

Such  societies  existed  throughout  India  from 
very  ancient  times  as  adjimcts  and  supporters 
of  Brahmanism,  generally  composed  of  the  priestly 
and  aristocratic  castes  exclusively.  In  China 
after  Confucianism  became  the  dominant  religion, 
such  secret  orders  soon  sprung  up  as  its  cham- 
pions. Buddhism  developed  very  many  of  them, 
especially  in  the  moimtains  of  Thibet,  which 
were  full  of  secret  orders  of  monastics,  mostly 
under  the  control  of  the  Grand  Lama.  Egypt 
under  its  ancient  Osirian  priesthood  had  many 
fanatical  secret  orders,  especially  recruited  from 
their  ranks,  whose  authority  was  greater  even 
than  the  Pharaohs,  and  whose  edicts  of  secret 


Second  Adventists  239 

imprisonment  or  death,  fulminated  against  heretics 
and  enemies  of  the  holy  hierarchy,  spread  terror 
everywhere,  and  were  mercilessly  enforced.  Gre- 
cian, Roman,  and  Scandinavian  mythologies  had 
such  secret,  oath-bound  orders  and  lodges  among 
men  and  even  women.  The  Eleusinian  and  Diony- 
sian  mysteries  of  Greece  and  the  priests  and  priest- 
esses of  the  Delphic  oracles  of  Apollo,  the  order 
of  Vestal  Virgins  of  Rome,  and  the  secret  con- 
claves of  Druid  and  Scandinavian  priests,  of  Thor 
and  Odin,  into  whose  mysteries  only  the  custo- 
dians of  their  holy  books,  incantations,  and  rites, 
and  their  devoted  servants,  were  admitted,  had 
absolute  power  over  the  people.  Such,  too,  were 
the  ancient  Jewish  orders  of  the  Nazirites,  Recha- 
bites,  Essenes,  and  also,  most  probably,  the  Phar- 
isees. Mohammedan  countries  also  have  their 
secret  orders  in  the  dervishes,  who  are  intensely 
fanatical  recluses. 

After  the  adoption  and  patronage  of  Christian- 
ity by  the  Roman  emperors,  and  especially  during 
the  Dark  and  Middle  Ages,  secret  religious  orders 
rapidly  grew  up.  Out  of  them  the  crusades  devel- 
oped, and  from  the  crusaders  grew  up  the  relig- 
ious, military,  political  secret  orders  of  the  Knights 
of  the  Temple,  or  Knights  Templars,  Knights  of  St. 
John  of  Jerusalem,  of  Malta,  of  the  Red  Cross,  and 
Knights  Hospitallers.  After  the  religious  mania, 
in  which  the  wars  of  the  crusades  were  bom,  had 
worn  itself  out,  and  Europe  grew  tired  of  them. 


240  Evolution  of  Religions 

those  orders  of  knighthood,  in  the  years  of  peace, 
grown  rich,  ambitious,  and  dangerous,  as  secret 
political  associations  united  with  their  semi-relig- 
ious character,  under  the  absolute  control  of  their 
grand  masters,  became  a  menace  to  the  govern- 
ments of  Europe.  They  were  finally  crushed  out 
by  those  governments,  their  franchises  and  priv- 
ileges revoked,  and  their  property,  which  had 
become  immense,  as  corporate  bodies,  was  tmi- 
versally  confiscated.  Even  the  Roman  See,  which 
in  the  outset  encouraged  and  helped  build  them  up 
on  account  of  their  pride,  arrogance,  and  wealth, 
and  occasional  dominance  over  the  clergy,  finally 
arrayed  itself  with  the  monarchs  of  Europe  in 
antagonism  to  those  orders,  and  they  ceased  to 
exist.  Jacques  de  Molay,  who  was  burned  alive 
in  France  in  1314  for  rebellion,  was  the  last  grand 
master  of  the  ]\Iilitary  Templars. 

Several  centuries  ago,  when  the  secret  order  of 
Free  Masonry,  originally  organized  as  guilds  or 
lodges  of  practical  masons  and  architects,  had 
become  prominent  and  influential,  as  a  factor 
in  society,  in  some  countries  of  Europe,  and 
particularly  in  England  and  her  colonies,  those 
old  orders  of  knighthood  were  theoretically 
revivified,  with  nothing,  however,  similar  to  the 
originals,  excepting  their  ancient  traditions  and 
forms,  and  were  adopted  and  incorporated  into 
Masonry,  as  higher  lodges  and  degrees  of  that 
order,  as  a  quasi-military  branch  of  it,  to  which 


Second  Adventists  241 

order,  however,  the  Knights  owe  allegiance  and 
must  belong  as  members  in  ftill  concord  and 
affiliation.  The  ancient  position  and  prestige  of 
the  orders  of  knighthood,  as  sons  and  defenders 
of  the  Papacy,  has  ceased,  and  the  secret  orders 
of  monks  or  brothers  of  Augustines,  Franciscans, 
Benedictines,  Dominicans,  and  Jesuits,  and  other 
affiliated  societies  organized  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  mainly  after  the  overthrow  and  dis- 
persion of  the  militant  orders  of  knighthood, 
for  the  promotion,  perpetuity,  and  defense  of 
Catholicism,  by  their  zealous  founders,  have 
taken  the  place  of  those  ancient  orders  as  sons 
of  the  Church.  Among  the  Protestant  reformers 
of  Europe,  during  the  sixteenth,  seventeenth, 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  many  secret  religious 
and  religio-political  orders  grew  up,  which  in 
the  terrible  religious  wars  and  controversies 
of  those  times  generally  affiliated  with  Free 
Masonry, 

Scotland,  imder  the  bigotry  of  Calvinism, 
became  in  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  cen- 
turies a  very  hotbed,  so  to  speak,  of  religious 
orders  and  associations,  of  which  the  Covenant- 
ers and  all  the  Scottish,  Masonic  Trinitarian 
Lodges  and  Consistories  were  the  outgrowth. 
They  had  no  especial  basis,  excepting  popular 
legends  and  intense  devotion  to  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity. The  Presbyterian  Covenanters  imited 
for  self-defense  and   religious  protection  against 


242  Evolution  of  Religions 

both  Catholicism  and  the  English  Episcopacy. 
Masonry,  as  a  religious  and  social  order,  developed 
gradually  into  present  forms  and  organizations 
mainly  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries.  The  religious  tenets  and  traditions  of 
the  order  in  the  Blue  Lodges  and  Chapters  are 
Hebraic,  but  in  the  Commanderies  and  Consis- 
tories only  Protestant  doctrines  and  traditions 
are  taught  and  symbolized,  and  hence  Masonry 
as  an  order  has  always  been  antagonized  by  the 
Roman  hierarchy.  Nominally  now,  the  order 
is  non-sectarian,  and  merely  speculative  Masonry, 
and  anyone  who  professes  belief  in  the  existence 
of  God,  Christian,  Jew,  or  Mohammedan,  or 
follower  of  any  other  religion,  can  be  affiliated. 

Alasonry  has  always  been  an  auxiliary  of  the 
Bible,  and  especially  in  maintaining  belief  in  its 
supernatural  legends.  In  the  Blue  Lodge  Degrees, 
the  ceremonies,  obligations,  lectures,  and  legen- 
dary teachings  are  entirely  based  upon  and 
connected  with  the  building  of  the  First  or  Solo- 
mon's Temple,  and  the  Royal  Chapter  Degrees 
with  the  building  of  the  Second,  or  Zerubbabel's 
Temple,  and  those  legends,  with  sundry  extraor- 
dinary incidents,  are  taught  as  verities  in  the 
several  degrees,  although  really  they  are  out- 
side of  and  additional  to  Bible  narratives  and 
without  any  biblical  corroboration  whatever 
and  really  purely  fabulous.  The  most  of  the 
religious   and   historical   teachings    in   the    Blue 


Second  Adventists  243 

Lodge  and  Chapter  Degrees  are  virtually  the 
same  as  taught  in  the  old  Scriptures,  whilst  the 
Commandery  and  Consistorial  or  Scottish  Rite 
Degrees,  as  they  are  commonly  called,  have 
mainly  to  do  with  legends  of  the  crusaders  and 
Christian  doctrines,  only  excepting  in  the  Red 
Cross  Degree,  which  is  based  upon  the  Book  of 
Ezra.  Whatever  the  order  may  have  been  two 
or  three  centuries  ago,  when  speculative  Masonry 
was  substituted  for  practical  and  operative 
Masonry,  it  has  been,  since  then  and  is  now, 
mainly  a  social,  fraternal,  and  benevolent 
institution. 

The  teachings  of  secret  orders,  with  their 
mystic  rites  and  obligations,  strongly  impressed 
upon  the  mind,  are  generally  imbibed  and  believed 
without  questioning,  especially  by  the  young 
and  inexperienced,  as  those  first  becoming  Masons 
generally  are.  The  order  has  thus  unquestion- 
ably exercised  a  great  influence  with  its  member- 
ship in  maintaining  beHef  in  Jewish  and  Christian 
history  and  miracles,  though  it  furnishes  no 
evidence  whatever  of  their  authenticity.  In 
fact,  the  legends  of  Masonry  generally  are  not 
in  the  Bible,  and  are  simply  the  Cabbala  of  the 
order,  and  are  usually  received  and  believed  by 
most  Masons  as  supposedly  having  been  trans- 
mitted down  from  antiquity.  However,  many 
intelligent  Masons  do  not  believe  in  those  legends. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  none  of  the  legends  or  rites  of 


244  Evolution  of  Religions 

Masonry  have  any  foundation  or  authority  what- 
ever, outside  of  biblical  story,  and  hence  can  add 
no  confirmation  whatever  to  its  history,  miracles, 
or  prophecies.  Whatever  of  actual  Hebrew  his- 
tory there  is  in  Masonic  rituals  or  lectures,  is 
derived  from  the  Bible.  So  we  affirm  that  no 
"Brother  of  the  Mystic  Tie,"  even  after  he  has 
attained  to  the  thirty-third  and  highest  degree 
in  Masonry,  by  virtue  of  his  eminence  and  pro- 
ficiency therein,  knows  really  anything  more  of 
the  work  of  building  Solomon's  or  Zerubbabel's 
Temple,  of  Hiram,  king  of  Tyre,  of  Hiram  Abiff, 
of  the  ineffable  name  of  God,  or  of  the  miracles 
of  sacred  writ,  or  of  the  early  days  of  Christianity, 
than  is  foiind  in  biblical  pages  and  in  Josephus* 
works  and  the  Jewish  Talmud,  and  consequently 
no  more  than  may  be  known  by  any  Bible  reader 
or  reader  of  Jewish  history. 

Similar  comments  will  apply  to  the  simulated 
Moslem  Annex  of  Masonry,  the  modem  order  of 
the  Mystic  Shrine,  which  in  recent  years  has  been 
ingrafted  on  Masonry  by  some  enterprising 
inventor  of  secret  novelties.  The  ritual  and 
work  of  this  order  are  mainly  made  up  of  fictitious 
Mohammedan  legends,  aphorisms  from  the  Koran, 
and  fables  of  the  deserts  of  Arabia  and  Egypt, 
set  off  with  pantomimic  plays  of  traveling  on 
camels  over  their  sands  and  mountains,  merely 
child's  play,  social  and  amusing,  but  improfit- 
able. 


Second  Adventists  245 

We  write  as  a  Mason  and  lover  of  the  order, 
knowing  all  about  it.  It  is  a  great  social  and 
benevolent  institution,  and  its  members  generally 
are  men  of  honor  and  integrity.  In  its  social 
and  benevolent  features  and  high  standard  of 
moral  duties,  if  lived  up  to.  Masonry  is  peerless 
among  the  many  secret  orders ;  but  practically,  the 
most  intelligent  members  of  the  fraternity  regard 
the  rites  and  legends  of  the  order,  as  one  of  the 
most  prominent  and  brightest  Masons  of  the 
United  States  has  well  said,  "as  but  the  relics  of 
a  past  age,  and  really  continued  more  to  preserve 
the  ostensible  antiquity  of  the  order  rather  than 
to  bind  our  consciences."  We  desire  to  empha- 
size, —  and  that  is  mainly  the  object  of  this  short 
digression  about  secret  societies  whose  work  and 
rituals  are  supposed  to  be  based  upon,  and  con- 
firmatory of,  biblical  history,  —  that  neither  does 
Masonry,  nor  any  other  of  the  secret  religious 
orders  or  brotherhoods  of  the  past  fifteen  hundred 
years  in  the  Christian  world,  add  to  or  furnish 
any  contemporaneous,  cumulative,  or  corrobora- 
tive testimony  to  Bible  inspiration  or  Bible 
miracles.  The  other  many  secret  orders  of  our 
day  are  mainly  organized  for  life  insurance,  or 
merely  benevolent  and  social  purposes,  excepting 
the  Catholic  brotherhoods,  and  it  is  only  because 
of  the  supposed  corroborative  testimony  of 
Masonry  to  Bible  history  and  miracles,  of  which 
it  really  affords  none  whatever,   that  anything 


246  Evolution  of  Religions 

has  been  said  here  of  the  order.  Its  legends  have 
been  taken  from  the  Bible  partly,  and  are  partly 
fictions.  So,  whatever  of  history  it  teaches,  is 
not  original.  Of  course,  the  Templar  and  Con- 
sistorial  Degrees  have  some  modem  history. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

SATAN 

WE  purpose  now  to  consider  more  fully  than 
the  casual  references  hereinbefore  made  to 
the  subject,  the  question  of  the  existence  of  an 
evil  deity  called  in  the  various  bibles  of  the  world 
the  Devil,  Satan,  ApoUyon,  Lucifer,  Belial,  Ahri- 
man,  Angro-Mainyus,  Sheitan,  Eblis,  Set,  Typhon, 
and  many  other  names;  also  the  questions  of 
original  sin  and  eternal  punishment,  tenets 
intimately  connected  with  belief  in  the  existence 
and  power  of  the  evil  being.  Considerable  has 
already  been  written  in  these  pages  upon  these 
subjects,  but  we  propose  more  fully  to  discuss 
them,  and  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  truth.  Does 
such  a  being  as  Satan  exist  ?  If  so,  does  he  have 
the  powers  usually  attributed  to  him?  Are  we 
accoimtable  for  Adam  and  Eve's  sin,  commonly 
called  original  sin,  somehow  imputed  to  each  one 
of  their  descendants  as  personal  guilt,  by  orthodox 
Christianity  ?  Will  there  be  future  eternal  punish- 
ment, infinite  punishment  for  finite  sins,  original, 
as  well  as  actual  sins,  for  all  who  do  not  come 
under  the  benefit  of  Christ's  supposed  atone- 
ment?    These  are  momentous  questions.     As  we 

247 


c 


248  Evolution  of  Religions 

are  but  finite  creatures,  our  acts  and  thoughts, 
good  or  evil,  can  only  be  finite.  Excepting  what 
is  said  of  the  serpent  in  Eden,  commonly  assumed 
by  biblical  commentators  to  have  been  Satan  in 
disguise,  and  in  two  or  three  other  brief  references 
to  him  by  name  only  elsewhere,  rather  inciden- 
tally,' nothing  more  is  said  of  Satan  in  the  volumi- 
nous pages  of  the  Old  Testament.  We  have,  as 
has  been  said  already,  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
the  Hebrews  believed  generally  in  such  a  being, 
f  until  after  they  became  acquainted  with  the 
religion  of  Zoroaster  during  the  captivity  in 
Babylon  and  Persia,  nor  that  they  had  any 
idea  of  a  future  atonement  to  be  made  for  sins. 
As  Zoroastrianism,  then  intermixed  with  Chal- 
dean Magiism,  was  at  that  time  the  tmiversal 
religion  of  those  countries,  of  course  the  exiled 
Jews  came  into  contact  with  it  during  their  long 
residence  there.  Moreover,  we  know  they  did, 
from  much  that  is  said  in  the  books  of  Daniel, 
Ezra,  Nehemiah,  Esther,  Ezekiel,  and  in  most 
of  the  Apocryphal  books.  During  the  exile,  or 
subsequently,  soon  after  the  restoration,  these 
books,  as  well  as  the  books  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment in  which  allusions  to  Satan,  eo-nominee,  are 
foimd,  viz..  Chronicles,  Psalms,  and  Job,  were 
written  or  compiled,  and  the  redaction  of  the 
Elohist,  Jehovist,  Priestley,  and  Ephraimitic  old 

*  I  Chron.  ch.  xxi,  v.  i ;  Job  ch.  iv,  v.  2 ;  ch.  ii,  v.  i ;  Psalms, 
ch.  xix,  V.  6. 


Satan  249 

Bible  versions,  or  of  such  fragments  as  then 
existed,  were  then  made  by  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  and 
probably  other  Jewish  scholars  assisting  them. 
In  Persia  and  Chaldea  the  exiled  Jews  learned  from 
the  priests  and  IMagi  about  Angro-Mainyus,  the  evil 
one,  and  through  the  intermingling  of  the  Magian 
worship  with  the  Persian  imbibed,  partly,  the  cor- 
rupted Zoroastrianism,  which  had  been  changed  to 
teach  of  Satan,  from  an  originally  supposed  de- 
pendency upon  God,  to  being  co-existing  and  co- 
eternal  with  Him,  and  contesting  for  supremacy 
with  Him  on  earth  and  over  the  human  race. 
Magiism,  or  corrupted  Zoroastrianism,  also  taught 
that  the  evil  one  caused  noxious  plants  and  weeds 
to  grow,  created  dangerous  beasts,  poisonous  ser- 
pents and  vermin,  originated  diseases  and  pes- 
tilence, and  was  always  seducing  men  into  sin  and 
maintaining  with  Ormuzd  a  perpetual  conflict  for 
sovereignty  on  earth. 

These  ideas,  in  perhaps  a  modified  form,  were, 
dining  the  exile,  first  indoctrinated  into  the 
Jewish  theology,  as  well  as  the  Zoroastrian  belief 
in  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  and  the  future  judgment,  which 
Christianity  directly  through  Jesus,  and  remotely 
through  the  Pharisees  and  Essenes,  Jewish  sects 
of  His  day,  inherits  from  that  more  ancient  religion. 
If  these  doctrines  were  taught  at  all  by  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  they  were  very  ambiguously  and 
dimly    defined.      To    the    Persian    religion,  the 


250  Evolution  of  Religions 

sect  of  Pharisees  (derived  from  the  Persian  name, 
Parsi,  or  Parsis) ,  as  well  as  the  sect  of  the  Essenes, 
undoubtedly  owed  their  origin.  But  the  power- 
ful sect  of  the  Sadducees,  who  were  really  the 
aristocracy  and  literati  of  the  Jews,  "who  say 
that  there  is  no  resurrection,  neither  angel  nor 
spirit,"  *  adhered  strictly  to  the  ancient  Torah. 
Jesus  taught  the  doctrines  of  the  Pharisees,  and 
yet  they  were  His  bitterest  enemies,  mainly 
probably  on  account  of  His  denunciations  of 
their  pride,  arrogance,  and  veniality.  Through 
the  reformed  Judaism  of  the  Pharisees,  Satan 
became  also  a  prominent  factor  in  the  Christian 
dispensation,  in  its  evolution  from  the  old  dis- 
pensation or  out  of  it.  During  the  terrible  perse- 
cution of  the  Christians  for  two  and  a  half  centuries 
after  Christ  by  the  Roman  emperors,  and  in  the 
centuries  afterwards,  through  all  the  dark  ages 
of  superstition,  ignorance,  and  fanaticism,  the 
whole  world  was  supposed  to  be  literally  overrun 
by  the  devil  and  his  angels,  who  were  in  league 
with  the  wicked  heathens  to  crush  out  Christian- 
ity. Most  Christians,  in  common  with  the  Zoro- 
astrians  or  Parsees,  Hindoos,  Mohammedans, 
and  Mormons,  yet  believe  in  such  a  being,  and 
that  he  is  incessantly  and  everywhere,  omniscient 
and  omnipresent,  with  or  without  God's  permis- 
sion, they  do  not  exactly  know,  engaged  with 
his  angels  of  darkness  in  the  nefarious  work  of 

*  Acts,  ch.  xxiii,  v.  8. 


Satan  251 

seducing  human  beings  of  all  faiths  and  of  no 
faith,  from  the  paths  of  goodness  and  virtue,  and 
alluring  them  into  sin  and  wickedness,  —  the 
devil  apparently  more  than  holding  his  own  in  the 
great  conflict  with  the  Almighty. 

Now  does  such  a  being  exist?  Did  he  ever 
exist  ?  Are  Dante's  "  Inferno  "  and  Milton's  "  Para- 
dise Lost"  horrible  realities?  Is  Satan  a  creature 
of  God,  as  Christians  and  Moslems  generally 
believe,  or  is  he  self -existent,  eternal,  and  inde- 
pendent of  God,  as  the  followers  of  Zoroaster 
taught  and  perhaps  teach  yet?  If  the  latter 
theory  is  correct,  then  the  Zoroastrian  doctrine, 
granting  the  premises  of  Satan's  independence 
and  self -existence,  is  at  least  logical,  and  the 
endless  conflict  between  God  and  Satan,  a  neces- 
sary, reasonable,  and  natural  sequence.  But  ortho- 
dox Christians  believe,  with  all  other  Christians, 
that  God  is  omnipotent,  omniscient,  and  omni- 
present, and  infinite  in  wisdom  and  goodness, 
and  they  further  believe,  which  Unitarians  and 
Universalists  do  not,  that  Satan  was  in  the  be- 
ginning created  by  God  and  was  once  one  of  the 
powers  of  Heaven,  highest  of  angels  and  arch- 
angels, and  that  afterwards  by  rebellion  against 
his  Creator,  long  before  the  creation  of  man, 
he  fell  from  his  high  estate  and  was,  with  myriads 
of  his  followers,  rebel  angels,  cast  out  of  the 
celestial  paradise  into  a  bottomless  abyss  called 
hell,  away  beyond  the  boundaries  of  organized 


252  Evolution  of  Religions 

creation.  And  they  believe  that  Satan  and  his 
followers  have  ever  since  been  and  ever  will  be, 
through  all  eternity,  utterly  wicked  and  rebellious, 
ever  warring  against  God  and  hating  man,  and 
yet  at  their  will  and  pleasure,  permitted  by  the 
Almighty  to  come  to  earth  out  of  their  infernal 
home,  and  to  ever  work  by  every  phase  of  temp- 
tation and  blandishment,  sometimes  even  in  the 
guise  of  "servants  of  God  and  ministers  of  light," 
which  He  permits  them  to  assume,  the  more  suc- 
cessfully to  carry  on  their  work  of  deception  and 
villainy,  to  seduce  and  lead  astray  the  children 
of  men  into  sin  and  resulting  misery  here  and 
eternal  ruin  and  suffering  hereafter. 

If  such  is  Satan  and  his  mission,  and  the  work 
of  his  angels  by  the  permission  of  God,  what  is 
the  stem,  inevitable  logic  of  such  a  doctrine? 
Why  does  God,  the  Almighty,  with  infinite  know- 
ledge of  Satan's  work  and  purposes,  and  infinite 
power  to  prevent,  permit  him  and  his  fellow- 
demons  to  exist,  or  at  least  to  continue  such 
hellish  work  year  after  year,  from  age  to  age? 
He  knew  from  the  beginning  what  Satan  would 
do  if  permitted,  for  God  is  omniscient.  He 
knew  what  Satan  would  accomplish  when  He 
permitted  him  to  enter  Eden  and  tempt  Adam 
and  Eve  to  sin  and  death.  To  deny  it  is  to  deny 
God's  omniscience.  To  doubt  God's  power  to 
prevent  Satan  from  entering  Eden  or  accom- 
plishing his  devilish  purpose  there,  is  to  doubt 


Satan  253 

God's  omnipotence.  Now,  according  to  the  ortho- 
dox creed,  in  the  forum  of  reason,  is  not  the 
Almighty  ultimately  responsible  for  Satan's  work? 
If  the  premises  of  the  orthodox  theory  are  true, 
then  logically  there  can  be  no  other  sane  con- 
clusion, seemingly  irreverent  as  this  conclusion 
may  be.  The  old  adage,  "  Facit  per  alium,  jacit 
per  se"  is  forever  true,  and  must  be  as  applicable 
to  Deity  as  to  man.  The  stem  logic  of  the  con- 
clusion cannot  be  avoided  or  evaded  by  saying 
that  it  is  irreverent  (truth  can  never  be  irrever- 
ent) or  that  God  is  not  governed  by  the  same 
moral  laws  as  men,  for  in  the  Bible  God  appeals 
to  men  to  judge  Him  by  the  same  moral  code  He 
gave  to  man. 

Nor  can  the  conclusion  be  avoided  by  the 
stereotyped  argument  that  Adam  and  Eve 
were  made  free  agents  to  choose  between  good 
and  evil,  for  if  so  they  were  equally  free  and  good 
before  Satan  came  into  the  Garden  of  Eden  and 
would  have  continued  good,  so  far  as  the  context 
of  the  story  shows,  indefinitely,  had  he  been  kept 
out.  But  besides,  the  story  shows  they  were  not 
free  agents,  because  their  moral  powers  had  not 
been  tested,  nor  did  they  know  how  to  use  them 
and  protect  themselves  from  evil,  for  they  did 
not  know  any  moral  distinctions,  or  any  difference 
between  right  and  wrong,  and  hence  could  not 
have  any  discrimination  of  the  two  ways,  or  any 
power   of   resistance   of   evil.     Much   less   have 


254  Evolution  of  Religions 

their  posterity  such  power  with  their  fallen  natures 
and  inherited  tendencies  and  traits  of  evil.  None 
of  us  are  free  agents  absolutely,  nor  were  Adam 
and  Eve.  They  were  forbidden  to  eat  of  the 
fruit  of  the  tree  which  would  have  given  them 
knowledge  of  and  enabled  them  to  discrimraate 
between  good  and  evil,  and  it  seemed  to  be  the 
desire  of  the  Almighty  to  keep  from  them  such 
knowledge.  Even  had  they  known  the  difference 
between  good  and  evil,  the  influences  and  capaci- 
ties for  and  against,  to  make  them  free  agents, 
or  keep  them  such,  should  have  been  entirely 
iinder  their  control,  based  upon  full  knowledge 
of  the  blessings  resulting  from  good  and  the 
curses  resulting  from  evil  deeds.  With  know- 
ledge of  inevitable  results,  the  sin  resulting  in 
their  case  from  their  disobedience,  or  in  case  of 
any  of  their  children,  imder  temptation  of  pas- 
sion and  appetites  only,  might  easily  have  been 
avoided  and  resisted  had  not  in  Adam  and  Eve's 
case,  overmastering  Satanic  influences,  and  in 
the  case  of  their  descendants,  overmastering 
hereditary  and  Satanic  influences,  also  been 
superadded. 

Innocent,  artless,  guileless,  ignorant  Adam 
and  Eve,  in  the  toils  and  temptations  of  Satan, 
had  no  free  agency  whatever.  It  is  simply  a 
mockery  to  talk  of  it,  according  to  the  environ- 
ments of  the  legend.  The  foil  of  abused  free 
agency,  set  up  by  bigoted  ecclesiastics  and  scho- 


Satan  255 

lastics  as  an  apology  or  excuse  or  justifica- 
tion of  the  awful  doom,  which  otherwise  would  not 
have  occurred,  of  death  and  eternal  punish- 
ment, incurred  by  Adam  and  Eve  for  themselves 
and  in  all  their  posterity  for  eating  the  forbidden 
fruit,  is  the  sheerest  sophistry  and  hypocrisy. 
Satanic  influences  have  confessedly  in  all  the 
teachings  of  the  believers  in  orthodoxy  and 
the  evil  one,  been  the  source  and  cause  of  all  sin 
and  evil,  and  have  overwhelmed  all  the  good  in 
man  which  otherwise  free  agency,  real  free  agency, 
under  normal  good  impulses  and  normal  con- 
sciences, might  have  enabled  him  successfully  to 
develop.  In  other  words,  surrounded  with  per- 
petual Satanic  temptations  to  sin,  with  the 
hereditary  propensities  of  men  since  the  fall, 
cooperating  with  Satan  into  abetting  and  fan- 
ning into  ungovernable  flames,  the  natural  fires  of 
appetities  and  passions,  there  has  been  no  free 
agency  of  man  since  the  fall,  and  for  the  reasons 
already  stated,  there  was  certainly  none  before, 
if  Eden  is  a  fact.  Free  agency  means  equally 
balanced  powers,  mental  and  moral,  equal  oppor- 
tunities and  influences  for  good  and  evil,  ample 
natural  and  spiritual  powers  to  choose  the  good 
and  eschew  the  evil,  with  reason,  to  enable  us  to 
control  in  turning  the  scale  in  favor  of  good. 
But  in  the  orthodox  cult  of  a  world  full  of  hellish 
influences,  ever  working  with  the  passions  of 
men   assisted   by  hereditary  natural   depravity, 


256  Evolution  of  Religions 

to  lead  them  into  evil;  free  agency  is  a  wholly 
delusive  theory,  a  promise  of  hope  and  freedom 
to  man  as  illusory  and  deceptive  as  fabled 

"  Dead  Sea  fruits  that  tempt  the  eye, 
But  turn  to  ashes  on  the  Ups." 

Our  human  theater  of  mental  vision  is  very 
limited,  it  is  true.  We  cannot  fathom  the  plans 
and  purposes  of  the  Infinite.  Many  argue  that 
the  orthodox  theory  of  God's  moral  government, 
though  apparently  illogical  and  unjust,  may  in 
His  universal  economy  be  right  and  best.  But 
we  have  only  our  moral  perceptions  and  our 
intellects,  based  upon  God's  moral  laws  in  the 
Bible  and  in  nature,  to  guide  us  in  the  paths  of 
reason,  justice,  and  truth,  and  from  such  lights 
which  He  has  given  us,  the  orthodox  ideas  of 
Satan  and  his  mission  and  work  are  wrong  and 
derogatory  to  God.  Unless  our  ideas  of  His 
sovereignty,  justice,  and  mercy  are  wholly  wrong, 
and  that  He  governs  upon  moral  lines  of  which 
we  have  no  conception  and  which  are  antithetic 
to  the  ethics  of  the  Bible,  the  omnipotent,  holy, 
and  all  wise  Sovereign  of  the  universe  could  not 
and  would  not  permit  such  a  fiend  as  Satan  to 
exist  and  carry  on  with  impunity  his  nefarious 
work.  To  permit  him  to  do  so  would  be  a  sur- 
render or  abandonment  of  every  one  of  His  holy 
attributes,  and  hence,  ex  vi  termini,  the  Satanic 


Satan  257 

theory  of  orthodoxy  with  all  its  horrible  sequences 
of  earthly  sin  and  eternal  punishment  is  utterly 
illogical  and  false.  "  God  sitteth  on  the  circle  of 
the  universe."  He  is  ever  on  its  throne  and 
holds  the  helm  of  its  government,  and  He  cannot 
and  does  not  permit  such  an  evil  being,  one  of 
His  creation,  to  thwart  all  His  purposes  of  infinite 
love.  Orthodoxy  dethrones  God,  and  Satan's 
realm  in  its  creed,  is  an  "Imperium  in  imperio." 
Incredible !  He  is  represented  in  the  Apocalypse 
of  Revelation  as  a  roaring  lion,  going  about  in 
his  mission  and  with  his  minions  of  evil,  unchecked 
everywhere,  on  earth  at  all  times,  vested  with 
powers  of  omniscience  and  omnipresence,  every- 
where present  at  the  same  time,  knowing  all  the 
thoughts,  passions,  and  doings  of  all  men,  and 
continually  tempting  all  to  sin  and  rebellion 
against  God. 

Under  such  overmastering  influences,  man's 
boasted  free  agency  seems  only  freedom  to  sin. 
What  wonder  ancient  Zoroastrians,  believing  Satan 
possessed  such  powers,  supposed  him  to  be  a 
deity,  contesting  with  God,  and  really  having 
much  the  greater  influence  with  men  and  having 
most  followers?  We  believe  the  Satanic  ascrip- 
tions in  the  New  Testament,  as  well  as  the  few 
found  in  the  Old,  to  be  mostly  allegorical,  and, 
with  the  descriptions  of  the  dark  world  of  sheol, 
hades,  or  hell,  to  be  fanciful  colorings  of  the 
original    text;    in   many  instances   perverted  to 


258  Evolution  of  Religions 

change  the  idea  of  the  Greek  world  of  departed 
spirits  to  correspond  with  the  morbid  delusions 
and  fanatical  creeds  of  the  bigots  of  the  Dark 
Ages,  and  all  of  them,  however,  inwrought  in  the 
Scriptures,  to  be  entirely  human  ideas  and 
beliefs,  not  of  God,  but  bom  of  the  superstitions 
and  darkness  of  those  ages  and  totally  imworthy 
of  credence  now.  Whether  allegories,  perversions 
of  the  original  teachings,  or  merely  superstitious 
fancies,  or  however  they  got  into  the  Scrip- 
tures, those  teachings  impeach  God's  wisdom, 
mercy,  and  justice,  and  limit  His  sovereignty,  and 
are,  therefore,   imtrue. 

To  read  the  old  creeds,  the  Westminster  Con- 
fession of  Faith,  and  the  works  of  Calvinistic 
theologians,  portraying  the  powers  of  Satan  and 
the  unutterable  horrors  of  hell,  the  impression  is 
conveyed  that  we  must  believe  in  such  tenets  as 
essentials  to  salvation.  Must  we  really  believe 
that  God  is  dethroned  in  His  moral  government 
by  Satan,  and  believe  in  the  eternal  punishment 
of  all  the  myriads  of  men  whom  God  has,  accord- 
ing to  orthodoxy,  permitted  Satan  to  deceive  and 
ruin  forever?  Only  a  few  of  those  numbered 
among  the  elect,  being  enabled  by  special  grace 
to  persevere  and  get  to  heaven?  The  teach- 
ings of  some  of  the  orthodox  theologians  of  a 
hundred  years  ago  seem  almost  incredible. 

Rev.  Edwards  in  one  of  his  sermons,  inter  alia, 
says: 


Satan  259 

"  The  view  of  the  misery  of  the  damned  will  double 
the  ardor  of  the  love  and  gratitude  of  the  saints  in 
heaven." 

In  the  thirteenth  of  his  published  sermons  he 
says: 

"When  the  redeemed  shall  see  how  miserable 
others  of  their  fellow  creatures  are ;  when  they  shall 
see  the  smoke  of  their  torments  in  hell,  and  the 
raging  flames  of  their  burnings,  and  shall  hear  their 
cries  and  shrieks,  and  shall  consider  that  they,  in 
the  meantime,  are  in  the  most  blissful  state,  and 
shall  surely  be  in  it  to  all  eternity,  as  the  lost  shall 
be  in  hell,  how  they  will  rejoice!  How  joyfully 
they  shall  sing  to  God  and  to  the  Lamb  when  they 
shall  see  this!" 

And  if  some  of  their  fellow  immortals  thus  suffer- 
ing, are  father,  mother,  son  and  daughter,  brother, 
sister,  and  others,  once  near  and  dear  on  earth, 
the  redeemed,  according  to  Dr.  Edwards,  would 
rejoice  in  Paradise,  and  their  happiness  be  abso- 
lutely enhanced  by  the  knowledge  that  those 
most  dearly  loved  on  earth  and  closest  in  the 
ties  of  blood  and  kindred,  were  suffering  ever- 
lasting torments,  and  from  that  knowledge 
realizing  the  amazing  grace  which,  all  immerited, 
had  elected  the  saved  to  enjoy  endless  bliss. 

We  doubt  if  even  the  devil  could  be  joyous 
over  such  ineffable  horrors!  How  can  anyone 
have  such  conception  of  the  inexorable  vengeance 
of  a  being  who  says  in  the  Good  Book  "that  He  is 


26o  Evolution  of  Religions 

our  Father,"  that  all  people  are  His  children;  that 
He  is  love  itself  and  infinite  in  mercy;  that  as  in 
Adam  all  died,  so  in  Christ  shall  all  Hve"  ?     Thank 
God  the  evolutions  of  religion  are  bursting  the 
shackles  of  such  teachings  and  are  ushering  in  the 
dawn  of  a  brighter  day.     The  world  is  awaken- 
ing to  the  light.     Few  Christians,   even  of  the 
orthodox,  believe  in  the  hell  of    a  century  ago. 
The  horrible  portraitures  such  as  we  heard  in  our 
youths   from   the   pulpits   of   the   world   of   the 
damned  and  its  awful  eternal  horrors,  are  never 
preached  now  and  would  depopulate  the  churches 
if    again  revived.      The    hell    of    the    past  is  in 
fact  absolutely  eliminated  from  polemical  essays 
and  sermons  nowadays.     Its  oceans  of  fire,  drink- 
ing of   melted   lead,  and  brimstone,  myriads  of 
howling,   cursing  demons,   flitting   about  among 
the  lost  souls,   and  the  horrible  imdying  worm 
in  whose  folds  the  wretches  were  writhing,  visions 
which  sometimes  yet  haunt  the  dreams  of  those 
who  in  childhood,  seventy  years  ago,  heard  such 
things   thimdered   from   every   pulpit,    are   now 
relegated  to  the  domains  of  fanatic  superstitions 
and  fossilized  beliefs.     Those  horrors  have  been 
transformed  by  the  demands  of  modem  Christian- 
ity into  the  milder  punishment  of  mental  tortures 
and  eternal  exclusion  from  God.     The  evolutions 
of  religious  belief  in  the  near  future  will  certainly 
eliminate  Satan  and  the  ancient  hell  from  the 
universe. 


Satan  261 

There  is  and  always  has  been  evil  in  the  world. 
The  pages  of  history  sicken  us  with  the  records 
of  it;  our  own  observations  disgust  us.  But 
all  evil  comes  from  the  passions  and  appetites  of 
the  children  of  Adam  and  Eve,  who  were  created 
with  them,  just  as  their  descendants  are.  In 
the  economy  of  God's  government  no  devil  was 
created  to  redouble  temptation  and  fan  the 
flames  of  passion.  Why  God  created  man  as  he 
is  and  always  was,  we  know  not,  but  doubtless 
in  His  wise  economy  it  is  best.  As  Adam  and 
Eve  were,  so  we  their  children  are.  We  inherit 
all  the  nature  and  tendencies  for  good  and  evil 
that  we  possess,  and  we  have  free  agency  sufficient 
to  induce  us  to  love  and  prefer  the  good,  even 
when  overborne  by  our  frailties  and  carried  into 
evil.  None  are  wholly  good;  none  are  entirely 
evil.  When  God  created  our  first  parents  He 
knew  just  what  they  and  their  posterity  would 
be  and  do,  and  His  purposes  have  not  been 
thwarted.  When  we  do  evil  it  is  the  inexorable 
law  of  our  nature  that  we  must  suffer,  but  it  will 
be  temporary  and  finite  pimishment.  When  we 
do  well  we  are  recompensed  with  good ;  and  there 
wiU  be  equable  adjustments  of  pimishments  and 
rewards  here  and  hereafter,  and  an  ultimate 
restoration  to  good.  We  do  enough  and  too 
much  evil,  and  God  did  not  create  a  devil  to  help 
by  overpowering  temptation  to  make  us  infinitely 
more  wicked  than  we  are  Hable  to  be  naturally. 


262  Evolution  of  Religions 

Most  of  human  sin  grows  out  of  ignorance,  pas- 
sion, and  heredity,  not  much  from  deliberate 
choice  of  sin.  If  our  first  parents  and  all  their 
posterity  should  have  been  forever  sinless  with- 
out Satanic  temptation,  then  ex  necessitate  it 
was  God's  will  that  the  primeval  state  of  inno- 
cence should  cease,  and  the  world's  history  of 
sin,  disease,  and  death  should  be  written  as  it  has 
been.  Such,  if  true,  is  the  inevitable  logic  of  the 
story  of  Eden  and  the  fall.  Orthodoxy  can 
take  either  horn  of  the  dilemma. 

There  are  imdoubtedly,  as  many  of  the  most 
eminent  Jewish  and  Christian  scholars  of  the 
present  day  assert,  and  clearly  prove,  numerous 
matters  in  the  Bible  that  are  not  inspired  nor  are 
they  communications  from  God,  as  we  under- 
stand inspiration  to  be.  Many  errors  of  fact  that 
have  got  into  successive  editions  and  redactions 
of  its  various  books,  many  mere  legends  and 
traditions  derived  from  folklore  originally,  and 
magnified  into  the  miraculous,  many  allegories, 
metaphorical  and  poetic  fictions,  often  grand  and 
beautiful,  but  outside  of  the  realm  of  fact,  so  that 
it  is  often  difficult  to  know  what  is  really  intended 
to  be  taught  as  veritable  truths,  or  to  separate 
allegories  and  illustrative  fictions  from  actual 
facts,  or  to  clearly  understand  the  truths  they  are 
intended  to  convey.  Inspiration  is  only  wrought 
certainly  into  and  can  be  clearly  predicated  of 
its  sublime  ethics,  its  revelations  of  God's  attri- 


Satan  263 

butes,  and  its  history  of  the  progressive  develop- 
ment of  our  race,  along  through  the  centuries 
from  the  beginning  of  time.  It  teaches  emphati- 
cally that  God  ever  rules  in  the  imiverse,  and 
that  nothing  ever  happens  contrary  to  His  will. 
There  are  no  accidents  in  human  life,  none  at 
least  in  God's  economy.  Jesus  says  that  a 
sparrow  cannot  fall  to  the  ground  without  His 
knowledge,  and  that  God  numbers  every  hair 
of  our  heads.  Yet  orthodoxy  teaches  that  God 
sits  on  His  throne  and  permits  Satan  to  go  on 
forever  with  his  accursed  work  of  evil,  irresist- 
ibly dragging  down  the  vast  majority  of  the 
human  family  into  endless  misery,  God  only 
sometimes  helping  man  in  the  conflict  with  Satan, 
who  is  generally  the  victor,  when  He  could  at 
once  easily  compel  Satan  to  cease  his  work  for- 
ever, or  else  annihilate  him.  The  theory  of 
orthodoxy  is  utterly  absurd  and  derogatory  to 
God.  Its  reign  is  waning.  The  world,  in  the 
not  distant  future,  will  have  a  loving  Almighty 
Father,  but  no  Satanic  majesty  in  its  moral 
government. 

Good  and  evil,  we  repeat,  virtue  and  vice,  as 
the  results  of  natural  forces,  affections,  passions, 
temperaments,  heredity,  social  influences,  and 
life  environments,  are  interwoven  into  our  lives 
and  involved  absolutely  in  God's  mysterious 
governmental  economy.  Says  Rev.  Minot  J. 
Savage  in  an  article  on  the  subject:  "Here  let  it 


264  Evolution  of  Religions 

be  clearly  understood  and  kept  in  mind  that  an 
infinite  being  must  be  held  as  ultimately  and 
solely  responsible  for  whatever  he  either  ordains 
or  permits.  Keep  also  clearly  in  mind  the  dis- 
tinction between  an  evil  that  is  only  temporary, 
and  one  that  is  eternal.  Any  kind  or  amount  of 
evil  and  suffering  that  are  temporary,  that  are 
only  experiments  in  the  development  of  a  soul, 
may  conceivably  be  justified  by  the  final  outcome. 
But  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  eternal  evil  and 
suffering  can  have  no  outcome  excepting  more 
evil  and  suffering,  and  cannot,  therefore,  in 
morals  be  justified."  * 

This  argument  is  logical,  clear  as  a  demon- 
stration in  mathematics,  and  unanswerable 
excepting  by  sophistry.  We  indorse  every  word 
of  it.  Moreover,  we  add  that  eternal  evil  and 
suffering  cannot  be  justified  by  any  system  of 
morals  of  earth  or  heaven  that  is  true,  for  the 
code  of  morals  which  God  has  given  us  in  the 
Bible  must  be  in  the  answer  of  our  consciences, 
the  code  universal  and  eternal.  Therefore  by 
that  code,  eternal  punishment  cannot  be  true. 
St.  Thomas  de  Aquinas,  one  of  the  great  Catholic 
Fathers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  says:  "God  eternally 
knows  all  things  as  present,  and  through  that 
knowledge  those  things  themselves  are  caused." 
To  know,  with  God,  is  to  be.  What  He  knows 
now,  or  in  the  future,  is  done,  and  all  things  are 

*  North  American  Review,  vol.  148,  p.  921.- 


Satan  265 

as  He  wills.  There  are  no  such  beings  in  the 
universe,  or  at  least  on  earth,  as  Satan  and  his 
angels,  and  all  that  any  religions  have  ever  taught 
of  such  denizens  of  hell  and  of  hell  itself  are 
delusions  bom  of  priestcraft,  superstition,  igno- 
rance, and  fear. 

Enough,  alas!  too  much,  temptation  to  sin  is 
evolved  from  human  passions,  human  wants,  and 
stiff erings;  often  absolutely  dominated  and  con- 
trolled by  overmastering  heredity,  without  any 
need  of  help  from  Satanic  influences.  Indeed, 
this  heredity  in  our  physical  and  moral  natures 
is  really  the  law  of  nature  in  the  propagation  of 
all  animal  life.  It  is  the  "visiting  the  sins  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  of  the  third  and  fourth 
generations  of  them  that  hate  me,  and  showing 
mercy  unto  thousands"  (or  really  all  of  them) 
"that  love  God  and  keep  His  commandments." 
It  was  simply  the  misconception  by  Moses  of  a 
physical  law  as  a  moral  law.  The  dreams  of 
St.  John  in  Revelation  about  Satan  and  hell,  and 
his  infernal  powers  on  earth  (if  indeed  the  Revela- 
tion is  St.  John's  and  not  the  product  of  some 
visionary  mind),  have  no  basis  of  credence  or 
support  elsewhere  in  the  Bible  and  are  utterly 
unsubstantiated.  As  has  been  already  said  in 
these  pages,  for  several  centuries  after  their 
appearance  their  authorship  was  doubted,  and 
on  account  of  their  extraordinary  character,  and 
unsustained  by  any  evidence  or  reasons  whatever 


266  Evolution  of  Religions 

to  substantiate  any  claims  to  inspiration,  they 
were  refused  admission  into  the  New  Testament 
list  or  canon,  and  were  classed  as  Apocryphal 
writings. 

Narratives  of  casting  out  devils  from  persons 
supposed  to  be  possessed  of  them,  are  not  foimd 
in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  those  narrated  in 
the  New  Testament  or  claimed  to  have  been 
performed  in  subsequent  times  have  no  con- 
firmatory evidence,  as  miracles  tending  to  prove 
there  were  or  are  such  beings,  and  the  environ- 
ments of  such  stories,  show  that  the  demons,  of 
which  those  persons  were  said  to  have  been 
possessed,  were  purely  imaginary,  and  that  they 
were  only  sufferers  from  insanity. 

Again,  infinite  punishment  for  finite  and  ephem- 
eral sins  is  an  imjust,  impious,  and  immoral 
doctrine,  untrue  by  every  analysis  and  test  of 
reason  and  justice.  Our  sins  are  the  events  of  a 
fleeting  day;  our  lives  are  but  a  shadow  of  time. 
The  punishment  supposed  is,  for,  maybe,  millions 
and  billions  of  years,  endless,  eternal.  Accord- 
ing to  orthodoxy,  the  pimishment  is  virtually 
the  same  for  all  sins,  and  for  persons  of  all  ages 
and  conditions.  Indeed,  according  to  Calvinis- 
tic  theology,  hell  is  for  all  human  beings,  except- 
ing the  eternally  elect  and  predestined  to  heaven, 
without,  it  would  seem,  much,  if  any,  regard  to 
merits  or  demerits,  because  the  "elect  are  so 
divinely  hedged  about  during  earthly  life  that 


Satan  267 

salvation  through  final  perseverance  iinto  the 
goal  of  the  heavenly  life,  was  a  termination  and 
gift  of  infinite  grace  which  absolutely  must 
result."  *  Indeed,  in  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  Romans, 
if  his  language  originally  has  not  been  tampered 
with  by  fanatics,  that  school  of  theology  had  broad 
warrant  for  such  doctrine.^  For  he  saith  to 
Moses,  "I  will  have  mercy  on  whom  I  will  have 
mercy,  and  will  have  compassion  on  whom  I  will 
have  compassion."  "Therefore  hath  He  mercy 
on  whom  He  will  have  mercy,  and  whom  He  will 
He  hardeneth.  Shall  the  thing  formed  say  to 
Him  that  formed  it,  Why  hast  thou  made  me 
thus?  Hath  not  the  potter  power  over  the  clay, 
of  the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel  imto  honor, 
and  another  unto  dishonor?  What  if  God, 
willing  to  show  His  wrath,  and  to  make  His  power 
known,  endured  with  much  longsuffering  the 
vessels  of  wrath  fitted  to  destruction:  and 
that  He  might  make  known  the  riches  of  His 
glory  on  the  vessels  of  mercy,  which  He  had 
afore  prepared  imto  glory?"'  To  the  same 
effect  in  a  previous  passage  we  find:  "For  whom 
He  did  foreknow,  He  also  did  predestinate  to  be 
conformed  to  the  image  of  His  Son,  that  He 
might  be  the  firstborn  among  many  brethren. 
Moreover  whom  He  did  predestinate,  them  He 
also  called;  and  whom  He  called,  them  He  also 

*  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith. 
'  St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  Romans,  ch.  ix. 


268  Evolution  of  Religions 

justified;  and  whom  He  justified,  them  He  also 
glorified."  ' 

Who  authorized  Paul  to  teach  the  doctrines  of 
election,  predestination,  justification,  and,  of 
course,  through  no  matter  what  intermediate 
mazes  of  sin  and  crime,  preceded  probably  by  con- 
version, the  final  perseverance  and  salvation  of  the 
elect  ?  Paul  was  not  authorized  by  the  Savior  to 
teach  such  doctrine.  Jesus  never  taught  it.  His 
parables  of  the  great  marriage  supper  and  of  the 
owner  of  the  vineyard  who  paid  the  eleventh-hour 
laborers  the  same  wages  as  those  who  had  borne 
the  heat  and  the  burden  of  the  day,  did  not  teach 
election  and  predestination,  but  only  illustrated 
that  of  many  who  were  invited  to  the  heavenly 
feast,  only  a  few  got  there,  and  not  always  those 
who  had  first  and  best  opportunities,  and  that 
sometimes  those  who  came  into  God 's  moral  vine- 
yard late  in  life  were  equally  rewarded  with  early 
converts,  probably  because  they  were  more  zeal- 
ous in  God's  service  and  did  more  acceptable 
work. 

As  an  amelioration  of  the  awful  doom  of  some 
of  the  myriads  who  are  condemned  to  endless  pun- 
ishment, we  are  told  by  the  believers  in  that  doc- 
trine that  there  are  gradations  in  the  sufferings  of 
the  damned  accordingly  as  they  are  young  or  old, 
were  greater  or  less  sinners,  or  had  greater  or  less 
light  and  opportunities  in  earthly  life. 

*   St.  Paul's  Epistle  to  Romans,  ch.  viii,  vs.  29-30. 


Satan  269 

Note,  this  is  merely  a  concession  to  the  liberal- 
ism of  the  age.  The  Scriptures,  if  they  really 
teach  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment,  warrant 
no  such  distinctions.  But  even  if  so,  cut  bono? 
Let  us  illustrate.  The  child  of  a  dozen  years  who 
has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  good  and  evil  and 
dies  imcon verted,  must,  according  to  Calvinism, 
go  to  eternal  piinishment.  A  wicked  man  who 
has  lived  to  old  age  in  sin,  dies  and  goes  to  hell. 
Now,  it  is  endless  hell,  hopeless  hell,  for  both,  and 
little  matters  it  to  the  poor  child  that  his  suffer- 
ings may  not  be  quite  so  severe  as  the  old  sinner's, 
when  they  must  be,  as  his,  eternal.  So  with  those 
who  go  there,  who  have  had  less  knowledge  or  op- 
portimities  than  others,  what  matters  it  to  them 
if  hell  is  endless?  For  by  those  who  believe 
in  a  spiritual  and  not  a  bodily  resurrection,  we  are 
not  informed  how  the  fiery  billows  of  perdition  can 
bum  and  torture  the  disembodied  spirit?  For 
the  old-fashioned  hell  of  our  ancestors,  we  suppose, 
a  bodily  resurrection  is  essential. 

Away  with  such  a  creed !  It  is  a  horrible  delu- 
sion, another  Mephistophelian  doctrine.  But  let  it 
remain  in  the  Scriptures,  if  it  really  is  taught  there, 
as  a  curiosity,  a  relic  of  bigotry,  ignorance,  and 
superstition.  All  denominations  of  Christians, 
excepting  Unitarians  and  Uni  versa  lists,  still 
teach  it  in  its  old-fashioned  terms,  in  confessions 
of  faith  and  liturgies,  but  it  is  seldom  or  never 
preached   as    of    yore   from    pulpits,    and    few, 


270  Evolution  of  Religions 

excepting  Catholics,  really  believe  it  or  are 
influenced  by  it  in  their  daily  lives.  But  in 
these  latter  days,  in  order  to  temper  the  dogma 
of  eternal  pimishment  to  weak  and  doubting 
Christians  who  would  rebel  against  it  in  its 
naked  deformity,  it  is  in  vogue  to  repudiate  the 
old-time  hell,  with  its  oceans  of  fire,  its  infernal 
tortures  of  the  undying  worm,  and  its  drinks  of 
molten  lead,  with  vivid  descriptions  of  which  we 
used  to  be  regaled  in  sermons  in  our  boyhood 
days,  such  sermons  as  intelligent,  orthodox 
Christians  would  not  now  tolerate,  and  to  teach 
that  hell  is  a  condition  or  result  to  which  the 
sins  of  the  wicked  and  impenitent  bring  them, 
and  not  a  world,  abyss,  or  place  of  literal  bodily 
torture  prepared  for  such  by  the  eternal  decrees 
of  God.  That  imcon verted  of  their  sins  when  they 
die,  the  wicked  could  not  live  in  heaven  with  God 
and  the  redeemed  any  more  than  pure  good  men 
and  women  could  live  agreeably  in  close  com- 
panionship with  the  wicked  and  impure  on  earth, 
and  hence  must  necessarily  gravitate  to  hell 
and  the  companionship  of  devils,  and  must 
there,  as  moral  qualities  either  improve  or 
degenerate,  ex  necessitate,  continue  growing  in 
wickedness,  and  that  their  sufferings  result  only 
from  remorse  and  the  torments  of  their  con- 
sciences and  regrets  for  loss  of  heaven.  That 
the  ancient  traditional  fires  are  fictions,  that  any 
change  of    heart  and  repentance  in  that  world 


Satan  271 

among  the  wicked  and  damned  is  impossible,  or 
would  not  be  heeded  by  God,  if  possible,  and 
hence  that  the  horrible  condition  of  the  lost  must, 
from  necessity,  eternally  continue.  This  is,  of 
course,  a  great  modification  of  the  old  dogma  of 
hell,  and  made  as  a  concession  to  the  liberalism 
of  the  age,  though  not  in  accordance  with  the 
descriptions  in  Revelation  which  were  insisted 
upon  literally  as  infallible  and  inspired  pictures 
of  hell  for  eighteen  himdred  years.  But  really 
this  latter  day,  and  apparently  more  liberal  and 
humane  theory  of  eternal  punishment,  does  not 
in  the  least  change  or  modify  the  relations  of 
Satan  to  God  and  man.  He  and  his  angels  are 
still  permitted  their  work,  as  of  yore,  of  enticing 
souls  and  filling  hell  in  each  generation  of  man- 
kind with  most  of  the  hiunan  family  just  the 
same  as  ever,  and  the  eternal  result  is  the  same, 
excepting  that  in  the  present  conceptions  of  most 
Christians,  mental  torments  are  substituted  for 
the  old-time  material  fires  of  hell. 

In  fact,  the  modernized  Christian  hell  is  sub- 
stantially the  mythological  Greek  Hades,  with 
the  exception  that  only  a  vast  majority  of  souls 
go  to  the  Christian  Hades,  and  not  all,  as  they  did 
to  the  dominions  of  Pluto  across  the  gloomy 
Styx.  And  when  it  is  considered  that  material 
fires  could  not  probably  under  any  conditions 
affect  disembodied  or  incorporeal  essences,  imless 
after  the  resurrection  in  some  mysterious  way, 


272  Evolution  of  Religions 

material  bodies  were  furnished  the  lost  in  hell, 
the  modernized  idea  of  change  of  punishment  in 
perdition  does  not  seem  to  amount  to  much  of  a 
gain.  The  lost  are,  as  in  the  old  idea  of  hell, 
lost  forever,  and  forever  exiled  from  mercy  and 
from  God.  Their  pimishment  and  doom  are 
eternal,  and  the  old  serpent,  the  devil,  pursues 
his  ancient  vocation  on  earth  after  more  victims, 
imrestrained,  and  that  vocation  will  continue,  so 
far  as  we  are  informed,  while  the  world  rolls  on 
its  axis.  The  new  theory  does  not  seem  to  be 
much  of  a  gain  for  the  lost,  excepting  as  they  may 
blame  themselves  more  and  God  less,  in  the  con- 
templation that  the  eternity  of  their  exile  from 
God  is  a  necessary  result,  according  to  God's 
laws,  of  their  impenitence  on  earth.  But  the 
result,  the  endless  doom  of  the  lost  under  God's 
decrees,  is  the  same  imder  either  theory  or  con- 
dition of  hell,  and  Satan's  work  on  earth,  imre- 
strained of  God,  continues  ever  the  same.  So 
that  practically  there  is  no  gain  to  the  lost  in 
the  modem  theory  of  hell  and  its  limitations, 
excepting  in  the  absence  of  fiery  torments,  which 
they,  imder  the  old  theory,  were  forever  enabled 
to  sustain,  but  which  as  spirits  could  not  hurt 
them  anyhow. 

But  if  not  doomed  by  the  decrees  of  the 
Almighty  to  eternal  punishment  and  exile,  why 
should  there  be  no  end  of  it  ?  Why  not  a  world 
of  probation  and  repentance?     Certainly  there  is 


Satan  273 

no  proportion  of  justice  between  finite  sins  and 
eternal  punishment.  No  sane  man  will  argue 
that  there  can  be.  A  fanatic  is  not  sane.  There 
may  be  pimishment  in  a  future  life;  all  sins  and 
violations  of  God's  moral  and  nature's  physical 
laws  are  punished ;  but  most,  we  opine,  are  pun- 
ished on  earth.  Some  offenses  and  offenders  may 
not  have  had  meted  out  to  them  due  punish- 
ment on  earth.  But  our  memories  will  remain, 
and  we  shall  know  all  in  the  future  we  knew 
here.  Surely,  if  in  the  future  life,  the  wicked  can 
have  the  volition  to  continue  in  sin  and  imrepent- 
ant,  they  can  also  have  the  volition  to  repent. 
Feeling  remorse  for  past  misdeeds,  as  admittedly 
they  will,  loathing  the  companionship  of  the  wicked 
and  desperate,  as  well  as  naturally  longing  for 
the  joys  of  heaven,  and  association  with  the  good 
and  happy  —  surely  they  will  sooner  or  later  es- 
chew love  of  sin,  and  heartily  repent  of  past  mis- 
deeds. This  must  in  the  immortal  nature  of  man 
be  so.  Therefore,  according  to  the  new  orthodoxy, 
as  only  the  stubborn  persistence  in  rebellion  of  those 
who  have  gone  to  the  bad  world  keeps  them  there ; 
therefore,  per  contra,  sincere,  humble  repentance 
would  at  once  open  their  prison  doors  and  admit 
them  to  a  reconciled  God  and  the  heavenly  Para- 
dise. This  is  practically  the  Catholic  doctrine  of 
purgatory,  liberally  and  universally  applied. 

Under  the  new  theory  of  orthodoxy,  no  decree 
of  God  bars  universal  repentance,  and  imiversal 


274  Evolution  of  Religions 

restoration  of  all  humanity  to  heaven.  Therefore, 
imder  the  new  theory  of  future  ptinishment  car- 
ried out  to  legitimate  and  natural  results,  the  evil 
world  would  soon  be  depopulated,  excepting  of  any 
incorrigibles  who  might  prefer  remaining  there, 
"rather  ruling  in  hell  than  serving  in  heaven." 
The  result  would  be  the  universal  salvation  and 
restoration  of  all  the  human  family  to  eternal  ha  p- 
piness,  a  result  which  only  the  supposed  eternal  de- 
crees of  God,  as  interpreted  by  orthodoxy,  or  the 
incorrigible  stubbornness  of  the  wicked,  could  pre- 
vent of  fulfillment.  If  reason,  memory,  volition, 
identity  of  self,  remain  with  us  in  the  future  life 
(and  if  not,  we  would  be  no  longer  the  selves  we 
were  on  earth),  then  there  is  no  reason  —  there  can 
be  no  reason  given  —  why  repentance  could  not 
be  in  that  life  as  well  as  in  this,  and  no  reason  why 
infinite  mercy  would  not  be — yes,  if  infinite,  must 
be  —  vouchsafed  to  the  wretched  and  penitent  in 
that  world  as  well  as  in  this. 

Our  modem  ideas  of  hell  are  merely  evolutions 
of  the  intelligence  and  charity  of  the  age,  from  the 
old  Zoroastrian,  Egyptian,  Brahman,  Buddhist, 
Greek,  and  Christian  beliefs  of  the  past,  and  they 
are  keeping  pace  with  the  progress  of  liberal  reli- 
gious sentiments.  Doubtless  in  the  coming  years, 
those  old  imaginary  realms  of  darkness  and  de- 
spair, of  those  various  old  religions,  will  be  forgot- 
ten, or  only  remembered  through  antiquarian 
literature  and  classed  with  other  biblical  Apocry- 


Satan  275 

pha.  As  the  light  of  knowledge  spreads,  true 
religion  assumes  fairer  and  happier  forms,  and 
the  goblins  of  ignorance,  bigotry,  and  superstition 
vanish,  as  the  shades  of  night  before  the  simrise. 
It  is  one  of  the  peculiar  phases  of  religious  belief, 
and  doubtless  owing  largely  to  the  influences  of 
early  training  and  impressions  which  are  hardly 
ever  entirely  shaken  off,  no  matter  how  erroneous, 
that  Rev.  Charles  D.  Briggs,  the  accomplished 
Bible  scholar,  usually  so  liberal  and  advanced  in 
his  religious  views,  who  seems,  from  the  tone  of  his 
writings,  to  have  little  faith  in  miracles  generally,' 
and  who  in  many  instances  denies,  in  toto,  and  in 
other  instances  strongly  questions  the  commonly 
assumed  authorship  of  biblical  books,  and  who 
points  out  so  many  errors  and  interpolations  in 
them,  facts  utterly  at  variance  with  the  dogma  of 
their  infallibility,  should  apparently  believe  in  the 
doctrine  of  eternal  pimishment,  though  he  says 
but  little  on  the  subject  in  any  of  his  writings,  and 
indeed  seems  to  evade  the  discussion  of  it. 

Another  apparent  inconsistency  in  his  teachings 
is,  that  while  he  refers  so  strongly  and  depreciat- 
ingly as  he  does  in  many  places,  to  the  conflicting 
doctrines  of  many  eminent  Jewish  and  Christian 
writers  of  all  ages,  in  reference  to  biblical  exegesis 

^  He  says  in  "The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  Appen- 
dix, p.  279,  "But  it  has  been  found  easier  to  prove  the 
Divinity  of  Christ  without  miracles,  as  if  there  were  no 
such  things  as  miracles  and  predictions  in  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures." 


276  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  belief,  and  himself  differs  so  widely  from  many 
of  them,  upon  a  multitude  of  matters  of  biblical 
history,  canon,  tradition,  authority,  and  doctrine, 
he  should  himself  persistently  urge  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  in  the  Bible  taught  so  and  so,  on  many  ques- 
tions, and  that  the  Holy  Spirit's  guidance  on  all 
controverted  questions  should  be  and  was  the  only 
sure  standard  of  biblical  interpretation.  Doubt- 
less, he  is  theoretically  correct.  But  who  is  to 
make  the  application?  The  Holy  Spirit's  only 
guidance  is  in  the  language  and  text  of  the  Bible, 
and  it  has  spoken  only  in  the  same  text  through 
many  centuries,  and  to  thousands  of  priests  and 
scholars  in  all  their  diversified  interpretations,  the 
same  as  it  speaks  now.  Who  is  authorized  apart 
from  the  Bible  text  itself  to  affirm  that  the  Holy 
Spirit  means  or  declares  so  and  so  upon  any  ques- 
tion of  fact  and  doctrine?  The  Catholic  Church 
assumes  that  the  Pope  of  Rome,  as  vicegerent  of 
God,  is  infallible,  and  has  authority  to  declare  in 
accordance  with  the  canons  of  the  Church  and 
the  decrees  of  general  councils  what  are  the  Holy 
Spirit's  teachings  as  to  any  and  all  matters  in  the 
Bible.  Protestants,  however,  as  well  as  the  Greek 
Church,  and  of  course  Rev.  Briggs,  deny  his 
authority  to  do  so. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  although  surely  we  must 
admit  that  the  Holy  Spirit's  guidance  should  be 
the  infallible  standard  of  construction  and  belief, 
if  that  guidance  and  teaching  were  always  surelv 


Satan  277 

vouchsafed  to  ministers  of  the  Gospel  or  to  any 
special  persons,  yet  the  burning  question  is  — 
How  are  we  to  know  certainly  at  any  time  or  place 
who  is  under  such  gtddance  and  what  construction 
of  its  teachings  is  infallible  ?  Who  is  the  inspired 
prophet  or  expoimder  of  Scriptures,  and  when 
expoimders  differ,  who  or  which  is  infallible  ?  Un- 
derlying these  questions  is  the  whole  subject  of 
biblical  authenticity  and  interpretations,  doctrines 
and  miracles.  Oh,  could  we  but  know  surely  the 
Holy  Spirit's  will  and  have  His  guidance  in  all 
things,  all  questions  pertaining  to  the  Bible  and 
religion  would  be  speedily  settled.  But  the  end- 
less and  eternal  controversy,  as  Dr.  Briggs  well 
knows,  between  all  creeds  and  sects,  bishops, 
priests,  and  controversialists,  translators  and  in- 
terpreters, Jews  and  Christians  alike,  has  been 
and  is:  not  that  the  Bible  standard  is  not  the 
infallible  one,  but  as  to  what  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
that  standard  does  surely  teach.  God  is  the  Holy 
Spirit,  and  He  delegates  or  transmits  His  wisdom 
and  knowledge  only  in  finite  degrees  to  man. 

The  Bible  is  God's  teaching  through  men  to 
man.  Man's  reason  is  given  to  interpret  and 
apply  it.  So  Briggs'  standard  of  interpretation 
is  the  true  one,  but  only  in  this,  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
speaks  in  the  Bible  to  each  reader  of  it  according 
to  the  light  of  his  own  reason  and  conscience. 
Absolutely  in  all  things  what  the  Holy  Spirit 
does  teach  in  the  Bible  is  the  whole  open  field  of 


278  Evolution  of  Religions 

Scripture  controversy  over  again,  and  the  truth 
will  never  perhaps,  in  all  its  essentials,  be  fully 
known  on  this  side  of  eternity.     Each  individual 
has  in  the  Bible  the   Holy  Spirit's   guidance  for 
himself  as  he  honestly  and  fearlessly  reads  and 
believes  it,  and  God  has  vouchsafed  to  man  on 
earth  no  other  guidance.      It  may  teach  me  one 
thing   on   any  given    question.      It    may   teach 
Dr.  Briggs  otherwise  on  the  same  subject.     The 
error  between  us,  if  there  be  one,  is  in  our  dif- 
ferent enlightenment  and  judgment.     Such  seems 
to  us  to  be  the  whole  sum  and  substance  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Holy  Spirit's  guidance.      God's 
attribute   of   infallibility   is   not   given   to   man. 
Man  is  groping  his  way  to  light,  but  its  effulgence 
will  only  fully  irradiate  the  future  life  where  we 
are  promised,  "We  shall  know  as  we  are  known." 
The  Holy  Spirit's  guidance  is  only  vouchsafed  in 
this  life  through  human  intellects.     And  so  it  is 
God's  will.     He  alone  knows  ultimate  truth.     All 
man  can  do  is  to  seek  for  that  truth  as  earnestly 
as  he  can.     Jesus  Christ  left  His  teachings  only 
to  the  memories  of  his  followers.     So  Dr.  Briggs' 
standard  resolves  itself  only  in  the  Bible  as  it  is 
and  as  it  is  imderstood  by  various  minds. 

The  Holy  See  of  Rome  assumes  to  be  the  infal- 
lible expoimder  of  the  Bible,  but  only  the  mem- 
bership of  that  church  believes  in  such  infallibility. 
The  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  has  been  sought 
in  all  ages  by  the  prophets  and  priests  of  all  reH- 


Satan  279 

gions,  but  it  has  only  been  obtained  to  the  degree 
that  they  have  been  inspired  to  teach  the  truths  of 
reHgion,  imperfectly,  as  we  have  them  in  the  vari- 
ous Holy  Books  of  earth.  But  absolute  divine 
guidance,  so  that  the  human  exponents  of  God's 
teachings  shall  be  understood  the  same  by  every- 
one in  all  things,  has  never  been  obtained,  and  most 
likely  never  will  be  this  side  of  eternity.  Each  and 
all  of  the  thousands  of  biblical  translators,  commen- 
tators, and  polemical  writers,  Jewish  and  Christian, 
in  all  their  multiplicity  of  writings,  versions,  and 
interpretations,  claimed  to  have  sought  and  many 
to  have  foimd  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
But  the  world  knows  the  conflicting  results.  So 
that  such  guidance  should  be  clearly  known  and 
infallibly  correct,  how  are  the  teachers  or  how  are 
their  followers  to  know,  unless  all  honestly  agree  ? 
Why  if  there  is  such  guidance,  independently  of 
the  written  word,  should  so  many  claiming  it 
differ  so  widely  as  they  do,  and  always  have  done  ? 
Is  Dr.  Briggs  an  infallible  exponent  of  the  Bible  ? 
From  the  air  of  authority  with  which  he  speaks,  one 
is  apt  to  imagine  that  he  feels  so.  Generally  we 
indorse  his  views  upon  Bible  exegesis.  He  is  brave, 
liberal,  and  honest,  profoundly  learned,  of  great 
ability,  and  possessing  the  courage  of  his  convic- 
tions. He  doubtless  seeks  the  highest  light,  but  man 
can  only  partially  obtain  it  through  the  teachings  of 
the  Bible,  and  in  nature's  open  book,  and  the  light 
is  refracted  to  each  one  according  to  the  different 


28o  Evolution  of  Religions 

mediums  of  intellect,  capacities,  and  environments 
it  filters  through.  The  supreme  truth  is  only  in 
God  Himself.  We  do  not  think  that  Dr.  Briggs 
is  correct  in  assuming  that  Jesus  is  the  Yahveh  or 
Jehovah  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  that  all  or  any 
of  the  Mosaic  sacrifices,  ceremonies,  and  services 
are  typical  symbols  of  His  future  coming  to  earth, 
and  vicarious  sacrifice  on  the  Cross,  or  that  the  old 
prophetic  ascriptions  to  Jehovah,  ever  refer  to 
Jesus.  We  have  already  stated  many  reasons  why 
we  believe  such  assumption  is  unauthorized.  In 
addition,  we  may  remark  further  that  if  Jehovah 
exists  in  the  triime  personality  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost,  He  so  existed,  as  well,  during  the  old 
dispensation  as  afterwards,  and  this  relation  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  spoken  of  through  inspir- 
ation in  the  days  of  the  prophets,  as  well  as  in  the 
new  dispensation,  if  it  were  so.  But  it  is  not,  and 
God  is  everywhere  spoken  of  in  the  old  Scriptures 
as  one  and  only  one  God,  as  if  to  exclude  any  other 
idea  of  Deity,  but  oneness. 

Isaiah,  the  greatest  of  all  the  Hebrew  prophets, 
absolutely  puts  the  seal  of  condemnation,  as  if  by 
anticipating  them,  upon  such  later  theories,  in 
many  of  his  prophetic  teachings  and  particularly 
in  the  first  chapter,  wherein  he  declares  emphat- 
ically that  all  the  Hebrew  sacrifices  and  sacrificial 
rites  were  not  only  unauthorized  by  Jehovah,  but 
were  an  abomination  to  Him,  and  hence  they  could 
not  be  in  any  way  typical  or  symbolical  of  His 


Satan  281 

future  coming  to  earth  in  human  form  and  as 
a  sacrificial  vicarious  atonement.  Others  of  the 
prophets,  and  particularly  Micah,  affirm  the  same 
disapproval  by  Yahveh,  of  sacrifices.*  Apart  from 
such  prophetic  condemnation,  we  may  reasonably 
ask,  why  should  God  manifest  or  typify  Himself 
as  a  future  Messiah,  bom  of  woman,  through  the 
debasing  symbols  of  the  similar  heathen  rites  of 
the  surrounding  idolatrous  nations,  the  bloody 
sacrifices  of  beasts  and  birds?  Is  it  reasonable? 
Does  it  comport  with  Almighty  wisdom,  power, 
and  glory,  that  He  should  do  so  ?  The  idea  of  such 
sacrifice  being  acceptable  to  God,  is  repulsive,  and 
its  frequent  denunciation  by  the  prophets  must  be 
in  accordance  with  God 's  aversion  to  this  unseemly 
worship.  The  sacrificial  worship  of  Israel  was 
simply  an  institution  of  a  semi-barbarous  people 
copied  from  the  customs  of  the  surrounding  na- 
tions, and  was  not  from  God.  It  is  absurd  to  believe 
otherwise  in  the  light  and  civilization  of  the  present 
day,  and  it  would  not  now  be  believed  as  ever  from, 
or  sanctioned  by  God  were  it  not  so  taught  in  the 
Pentateuch.  It  was  simply  an  absurd  and  barba- 
rous system  of  worship  of  a  barbarous  age,  adopted 
mainly  from  the  Egyptians,  to  the  worship  of 
whose  gods  the  Israelites  were  always  so  prone 
to  return  for  centuries,  notwithstanding  Moses  and 
the  prophets.  So  besotted  were  they  that  they 
were  frequently  guilty  of  human  sacrifices,  as  well 

>  Micah,  ch.  vi. 


282  Evolution  of  Religions 

as  of  beasts ;  to  Baal,  Rimmon,  Moloch,  and  other 
gods.* 

The  Almighty  has  revealed  Himself  to  the  extent 
that  men  were  qualified  to  comprehend  His  mes- 
sages in  the  ages  of  the  world's  ignorance  through 
chosen  missionaries.  Zoroaster,  Abraham,  Moses, 
Isaiah,  Buddha,  Confucius,  Socrates,  Plato,  Seneca, 
Cicero,  Antoninus  Pius,  were  all,  in  greater  or 
less  degree,  inspired  teachers  of  God 's  will.  Jesus 
Christ,  the  greatest  of  all  prophets,  was  nearest 
divinity,  and  His  teachings  most  divine.  Doubt- 
less even  Mohammed,  the  Mormon  teachers, 
Swedenborg,  and  other  authors  of  assumed  revela- 
tions, had  missions  to  perform  in  the  divine  econ- 
omy of  some  importance;  but  there  was  little  of 
originality  in  their  teachings,  or  in  the  historic  or 
miraculous  fictions  which  they  promulgated.  The 
knowledge  imparted  to  their  followers,  by  those 
who  were  given  the  Holy  Spirit's  light,  had  natur- 
ally to  be  communicated  in  the  ideas  and  language 
of  the  teachers  and  hearers  to  their  fellow-men,  and 
fallibility  was  inseparable  to  the  communication 
of  the  messages.  In  after-times,  translators  and 
expounders  of  those  messages,  from  the  manu- 
scripts in  which  they  were  originally  written,  made 
changes,  additions,  or  interpolations  which  they 
supposed  gave  greater  clearness  and  emphasis  to 
their  teachings.  In  so  doing,  they  sometimes  in- 
jected their  own  sense  of  what  obscure  or  doubtful 

*  II  Kings,  ch.  xvii,  v.  17. 


Satan  283 

readings  ought  to  be  when  translated  into  other 
languages  and  versions.  Such  we  know  has  been 
the  case  with  all  ancient  writings,  and  especially 
sacred  books,  all  versions  of  which  greatly  differ. 
Such  would  naturally  be  the  case,  even  more  so,  in 
controversial  matters  or  renderings  into  other  lan- 
guages of  texts  which  affected  different  sectarian 
doctrines  and  creeds,  than  in  matters  of  mere 
morals,  law,  history,  etc.  Investigation  and  com- 
parison of  texts  and  contemporaneous  writings 
have  shown  this  to  be  the  case,  as  well  with 
our  Bible  as  with  the  sacred  books  of  other  reli- 
gions. Nothing  is  too  sacred  for  fanaticism  and 
bigotry  to  pervert  and  change,  to  justify  their 
own  purposes,  or  maintain  their  usually  narrow 
and  illiberal  doctrines.  The  translations  of  our 
Bible  in  the  Dark  Ages,  by  incompetent  or  secta- 
rian translators,  suffered  from  such  experiments. 
Ancient  writings  of  all  kinds,  from  want  of  system 
in  composition,  no  division  or  separation  into 
chapters,  sections,  and  verses,  mingling  of  subjects, 
all  capital  letters,  or  no  capital  letters,  no  system 
of  punctuation  at  all,  and  other  defects,  were  very 
difficult  to  translate  correctly,  or  to  understand. 
Many  ancient  languages,  as  the  Hebrew,  Greek, 
and  Latin,  had  a  rather  narrow  vocabulary,  and 
hence  the  same  words  were  so  used  and  might 
have  a  dozen  different  meanings  or  shades  of 
meaning,  according  to  the  subject-matter  or 
context,  and  hence  it  was  easy  and  natural,  for 


284  Evolution  of  Religions 

instance,  in  translators  of  biblical  manuscripts 
who  might  be  imbued  with  strong  bias  or  secta- 
rian feelings,  to  give  a  bearing  to  their  render- 
ings of  the  text  entirely  in  harmony  with  their 
doctrinal  views,  but  really  at  variance  with, 
or  something  else  than  the  original. 

No  manuscripts  of  Bible  books  of  an  earlier  date 
than  about  the  year  1000  a.d.  are  now  in  exist- 
ence, and  that  was  an  age  of  extreme  ignorance, 
bigotry,  and  superstition.  Indeed,  all  ancient 
writings,  sacred  and  profane,  are  from  these  and 
other  causes  imperfect  and  more  or  less  imreliable. 
Ignorance,  superstition,  credulity,  incorporation 
of  mythical  as  well  as  purely  legendary  matters, 
are  discernible  in  all  ancient  writings.  As  to  the 
Bible,  largely  from  the  ambiguities  of  expression, 
and  the  different  shades  of  meaning  given  by  an- 
cient translators  and  interpreters,  notwithstanding 
the  honestly  sought  for  and,  doubtless,  supposed 
guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  have  resulted  the 
formation  of  innumerable  sects  of  Christians,  some 
teaching  Trinitarianism,  and  some  Unitarianism ; 
some  the  doctrine  of  eternal  punishment;  others 
the  belief  in  universal  salvation ;  to  others  creeds 
diametrically  opposite  and  at  variance,  not  only 
about  such  important  matters,  but  contending 
also,  and  sometimes  bitterly,  about  such  non-essen- 
tials as  modes  of  baptism,  and  whether  infants  and 
adults,  or  only  adults,  should  be  baptized ;  adminis- 
tration of  the  Eucharist  or  Lord's  Supper;  ques- 


Satan  285 

tions  of  election,  predestination,  foreordination, 
transubstantiation,  and  yet  other  matters  more 
trivial;  some  sects  of  Christians  even  making 
certain  of  those  comparatively  imimportant  differ- 
ences, as  regarded  in  the  light  of  reason  and  com- 
mon sense,  absolute  barriers  to  common  Christian 
fellowship,  or  even  a  passport  to  heaven,  of  those 
good,  pure,  and  worthy  who  otherwise  held  con- 
trary beliefs.  No  doubt  St.  Augustine,  Chrysostom, 
Philo,  Origen,  Eusebius,  Arius,  Pelagius,  Celestius, 
St.  Thomas  de  Aquinas,  Savonarola,  Loyola,  Gior- 
dano Bruno,  Servetus,  Calvin,  Luther,  Neander, 
William  Pcnn,  Priestley,  Dr.  Channing,  Sweden- 
borg.  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Wesley,  and  thousands  of 
other  good  men  and  able  Christian  scholars,  were 
equally  honest,  and  each  perhaps  sought  and 
believed  themselves  to  be  imder  the  guidance  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  and  yet  all  held  different  religious 
opinions,  and  arrived,  many  of  them,  at  widely 
opposite  conclusions,  none  of  them  entirely  agreeing 
with  the  others  in  their  writings  and  teachings  on 
biblical  matters. 

On  the  other  side,  Strauss,  Renan,  Gratz,  Well- 
hausen,  Wendell  Phillips,  Emerson,  Theodore 
Parker,  and  other  great  scholars  and  philosophers, 
who  were  no  doubt  equally  as  learned  and  well  in- 
formed in  biblical  lore,  reached  entirely  different 
conclusions  on  almost  all  scriptural  subjects  from 
those  other  great  men.  All  minds  are  differently 
constituted.     No  two  persons  on  earth  are  exactly 


286  Evolution  of  Religions 

alike  physically  or  can  exactly  see  or  think  alike ; 
and  in  the  divine  economy,  diversity  of  thought  and 
opinion,  in  all  fields  of  knowledge  among  all  men, 
seems  to  be  the  universal  law.  Hence  the  guid- 
ance of  the  Holy  Spirit  is  in  each  man's  con- 
science and  judgment.  Each  one  should  study 
the  Scriptures  for  himself  and  obey  the  voice  of 
God  as  it  speaks  to  him  in  its  pages,  and  that  is 
literally  following  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit. 
Its  gmdance  of  another  may  not  be  the  "inner 
voice"  for  myself. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

UNIVERSAL    SALVATION 

TO  me  the  whole  Bible,  as  one  religion  and 
light  coming  from  God,  the  Universal  Father, 
teaches  that  life  is  but  a  probation  and  that  all 
human  beings  will  sooner  or  later  enjoy  God's 
bovindless  mercy.  The  scheme  of  salvation  of 
narrow  orthodoxy,  including  the  sacrificial  atone- 
ment for  and  redemption  of  some,  and  the  eternal 
punishment  of  most  of  the  human  race,  was  not 
evolved  in  the  old  dispensation,  even  remotely, 
nor  taught  by  Jesu's  Christ.  As  has  been  already 
said,  it  was  evolved  in  the  Dark  Ages  of  Christen- 
dom by  narrow-minded,  bigoted  ecclesiastics.  The 
Hebrew  olden  sacrifices  were  not  types  of  Jesus' 
death.  Half  of  the  time  in  the  history  of  Israel 
they  were  offered  to  Baal,  Moloch,  Rimmon, 
Ashtaroth,  and  other  deities  of  the  surroimding 
nations,  and  in  the  same  groves  and  on  the  same 
altars,  and  by  the  same  priests,  as  had  been  used 
and  officiated  for  the  worship  and  offerings  to 
Elohim  or  Jehovah.  No  intimation  whatever  of 
the  sacrifices  being  of  a  symbolic  character  or 
as  typical  of  the  death  or  sacrifice  of  some  other 
being,  much  less  of  deity,  or  of  one  of  the  persons 

287 


288  Evolution  of  Religions 

of  a  triiine  God,  was  ever  given  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Such  ideas  were  evolved  first  in  the  apos- 
tolic writings,  and  only  allegorically  in  them. 

If  the  sacrifices,  instead  of  being  the  adoption  of 
a  religious  custom  of  surrounding  nations,  were 
really  typical  of  Christ's  Crucifixion,  why  was  it 
thought  necessary  to  slaughter  thousands  and  tens 
of  thousands  of  victims  for  centuries  annually? 
And  why  a  variety  of  animals,  bulls,  heifers,  goats, 
sheep,  and  birds?  What  was  symbolized  by  cut- 
ting the  animals  to  pieces  before  offering  them  on 
the  altars?  Or  by  offerings  of  bread,  cakes,  wine, 
etc.  ?  At  some  of  the  great  feasts,  thousands  of 
animals  were  slaughtered  at  one  time.  Would 
not  a  monthly  or  yearly  sacrifice  of  one  animal 
as  a  type  or  symbol  have  been  sufficient  and  vastly 
more  impressive  and  refining  than  the  daily  sacri- 
fice of  himdreds  or  thousands,  and  thus  avoid  turn- 
ing altars,  erected  to  worship  of  God,  into 
shambles?  The  priests  and  Levites,  it  is  true, 
mostly  got  their  food  from  the  sacrificial  animals, 
but  why  go  through  the  forms  of  sacrificing  all  of 
them?  If  the  sacrifices  were  designed,  as  claimed 
by  Trinitarians,  to  remind  the  children  of  Israel 
of  the  future  coming  of  a  Savior  of  sinners,  who 
was  Himself  to  become  a  sacrificial  atonement, 
certainly  from  any  knowledge  we  now  have,  they 
never  so  spoke  of  them  nor  regarded  them.  No- 
where in  the  Bible  are  they  mentioned  in  that 
light.     They  were  spoken  of  solely  as  propitiations 


Universal    Salvation  289 

for  sins.     Frequently  God,  through  the  prophets, 
spoke  of  His  abhorrence  of  such  sacrifices.^ 

Would  He  have  done  so  if  they  were  really 
typical  symbols  of  the  Crucifixion  of  His  Son  ?  If 
in  the  latter  days  of  Israel's  adversities,  the 
prophets  spoke  of  a  Messiah  to  come  in  the  dis- 
tant future,  He  was  heralded  as  Shiloh,  or  as  a 
great  prince  of  the  House  of  David  who  would 
reign  over  all  Israel  in  righteousness,  and  would 
possibly  subdue  all  the  world  to  His  dominion,  or 
at  least  restore  the  pristine  greatness  of  the  King- 
dom of  David  and  Solomon,  the  glories  of  which 
age,  when  their  empire  extended  from  the  Mediter- 
ranean or  "  Great  Sea  "  to  the  Euphrates,  and  from 
the  river  of  Egypt  to  Damascus,  the  Jews  never 
ceased  to  extol  and  exaggerate,  and  for  a  return  of 
which  through  a  prince  of  that  royal  line  in  future 
ages,  their  hopes  ever  went  out,  and  their  last 
dying  prayer  to  Jehovah  was  uttered. 

All  of  Israel's  impassioned  poetic  visions  when 
not  perverted  or  added  to,  as  they  were  frequently 
by  subsequent  Christian  translators  and  expound- 
ers, had  sole  reference  to  such  a  prince.  All  of 
the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  from  the  fortieth  chapter 
to  the  sixty-sixth,  were  additions  made  during 
or  after  the  captivity,  and  the  grotesque  head- 
ings of  chapters,  not  only  in  Isaiah,  but  in  all  the 
prophets,  were  made  by  Trinitarian  scholars  after 
the  division  of  the  Bible  into  chapters  and  verses, 

>  Isaiah  i,  11-15.     Micah  vi,  6-7. 


290  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  prove  nothing  and  are  often  entirely  inappli- 
cable and  inappropriate.  Jesus'  death  was  not 
an  atoning  sacrifice,  predestined  from  the  day  of 
the  Edenic  tragedy,  but  a  most  wicked  and  ruth- 
less murder  of  the  great  Prophet  and  Founder  of 
Christianity.  All  of  Jesus'  mission  on  earth  was 
outlined  in  His  great  sermon  on  Mount  Olivet,  and 
there  is  not  in  it  a  single  intimation  of  the  doctrines 
of  the  orthodox  creed,  and  His  simple  teachings 
are  grander  and  truer  than  all  the  incomprehen- 
sible dogmas  ever  written.  Though  some  of  the 
expressions  in  the  apostolic  letters  as  we  now 
have  them  seem  to  coimtenance  the  orthodox 
scheme  of  atonement  and  redemption,  there  are 
reasons  in  the  Gospels,  and  many  facts  of  subse- 
quent history,  which  prove  conclusively  that  such 
doctrines  were  evolved  long  after  Jesus '  time  and 
were  sustained  by  the  manipulations  and  perver- 
sions of  the  sacred  writings  by  bigoted  transla- 
tors. One  instance  in  point  we  will  give.  In  the 
King  James  version  of  the  Bible  in  the  First  Epistle 
of  John,  ch.  V,  v.  7,  the  text  reads:  "For  there 
are  three  that  bear  record  in  heaven,  the  Father, 
the  Word,  and  the  Holy  Ghost:  and  these  three 
are  one."  This,  as  an  entire  interpolation,  is  left 
out  of  the  revised  version  of  the  Bible  by  the 
many  able  scholars  who  made  it.  This  bold  in- 
terpolation shows  conclusively  what  Trinitarian 
fanaticism  in  the  Dark  Ages  would  do,  and  leaves 
us  to  imagine  what  renderings  it  probably  gave  to 


Universal  Salvation  291 

many  other  texts,  and  especially  somewhat  ob- 
scure ones  on  the  same  subject.  The  Trinity  was, 
as  already  stated,  first  formally  adopted  and  enun- 
ciated as  a  creed  by  a  bare  majority  out  of  some 
five  hundred  bishops  and  suffragans  of  the  Council 
of  Nicea,  325  a.d.,  and  Unitarianism,  which  had 
been  the  faith  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian 
world  for  the  first  two  centuries  and  a  half,  and  of 
most  of  the  Eastern  or  Asiatic  churches,  and  of  some 
of  the  Western  churches,  imtil  that  time,  was  su- 
perseded and  anathematized  by  the  majority  of  the 
Council  as  aforesaid.  But  there  were,  neverthe- 
less, many  of  the  ablest  bishops  and  priests  who 
still  adhered  to  the  Unitarian  or  Arian  creed,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  Council  of  Carthage,  511  a.d., 
that  orthodoxy  was  finally  established  by  the 
Romish  Church  then  dominating  all  Christendom. 

Many  of  the  greatest  scholars  and  theologians 
in  Christendom  have  opposed  orthodox  tenets,  and 
this  especially  during  the  seventeenth,  eighteenth, 
and  nineteenth  centuries.  The  names  of  Socinus, 
I\Iilton,  Locke,  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  William  Penn, 
Dr.  Channing,  Dr.  Priestley,  Daniel  Webster,  Dr. 
Franklin,  Presidents  John  Adams  and  John 
Quincy  Adams,  are  among  the  brightest  of  those 
centuries. 

The  Rev.  I.E.  Roberts,  an  eminent  scholar  and 
minister  of  the  Unitarian  Church,  in  a  sermon 
delivered  in  Kansas  City,  Missouri,  a  few  years 
ago,  said: 


292  Evolution  of  Religions 

"In  the  first  one  hundred  years  of  Christianity 
lived  and  wrought  its  founders.  They  were  the 
Judean  Prophet  and  His  Apostles,  and  their  imme- 
diate successors.  They  were  prophets  in  the  high- 
est sense  of  the  term,  not  because  they  foretold 
future  events,  but  because  they  were  good  men 
and  inspired  teachers.  They  walked  with  God. 
Their  inspirations  were  from  God.  They  were  men 
of  faith;  of  such  faith  in  the  truth  to  win  its  way, 
that  they  did  not  dream  of  any  necessity  of  aug- 
menting its  force  with  dogmas  or  dramatizing  it 
with  symbols.  Of  such  faith  in  God's  kingdom, 
that  they  needed  not  the  poor  reenforcement  of 
an  autocratic  priesthood  or  a  supernatural  church. 
This  was  the  age,  brief  though  it  was,  from  whose 
sown  seed  all  the  generations  since  have  been  gather- 
ing the  abundant  harvests.^ 

"With  the  beginning  of  the  second  or  mechani- 
cal age  of  the  Church,  dogmas  first  took  their  rise. 
During  the  first  one  hundred  years  of  the  ministry 
of  Christ  and  His  Apostles,  no  writer,  Pagan,  Jew, 
or  Christian,  is  known  to  have  set  forth  the  doc- 
trines of  the  immaculate  conception,  the  material 
resurrection,  or  the  miracles  of  Jesus.  None  of 
these  things  were  written  or  taught  during  the 
first  century.  The  doctrines  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ  and  of  the  trinity  were  not  formulated  till 
the  beginning  of  the  fourth  century;  the  doctrine 
of  original  sin  not  until  the  fifth  century,  and  that 
of  the  atonement  still  later.  Of  all  the  doctrines 
comprising    orthodoxy,    and    which    men    have    for 

^  See  p.  26. 


Universal  Salvation  293 

centuries  been  taught  they  must  believe  or  be  for- 
ever lost,  not  one  was  ever  formulated  by  Jesus 
Christ,  or  by  His  Apostles,  nor  by  any  one,  until 
centuries  after  their  time.  But  the  mechanical 
age  of  religion,  the  age  of  creeds  and  dogmas,  is 
passing  away.  Men  are  again  seeking  the  spirit 
of  that  creative  age,  in  which  the  immortal  found- 
ers of  Christianity,  without  creed  or  formula,  simply 
confessed,  by  life  and  teaching,  their  love  to  God 
and  man,  and  in  serving  God,  served  both  man  and 
God,  and  thus  fulfilled  religion's  highest  laws." 

"Before  the  problems  of  eternal  life, all  men  stand 
'equal.  The  wise  man  and  the  ignorant,  the  pa- 
triarch and  the  child,  are  alike  mute  and  helpless, 
but  all  peoples  of  all  ages  and  religion  have  be- 
lieved in  the  life  beyond.  This  human  instinct, 
this  deathless  hope,  symbolized  itself  in  the  Christ- 
ian festival  of  the  resurrection,  which  is  linked  by 
its  name  of  Easter  to  the  spring  celebrations  of  the 
Teutonic  nations,  and  by  its  associations  with  the 
Hebrew  Passover.  This  festival  points  chiefly  to 
the  supposed  resurrection  of  a  great  prophet  from 
the  tomb,  but  in  its  wider  meaning  it  stands  for  the 
universal  human  instinct  of  the  power  of  life  to 
transcend  change  and  death.  This  deathless  hope 
was  not  conferred  on  man  by  any  culture  or  reli- 
gion. It  was  before  them  both.  It  is  an  essential 
and  inseparable  part  of  human  life.  It  has  with- 
stood doubt  and  fear,  and  endures  perpetually  in 
spite  of  man 's  inability  to  demonstrate  the  fact  of 


294  Evolution  of  Religions 

immortality.  It  is  ia  accordance  with  what  man 
knows  of  life's  progress  from  lower  to  higher  forms, 
and  is  the  one  assumption  that  gives  unity  and 
sanity  to  the  universe.  It  may  be  best  that  man 
does  not  know  more  about  the  life  beyond.  It 
must  be  best,  or  God  would  have  given  us  more 
knowledge  of  it.  Our  work  for  the  passing  day  is 
here.  Death  should  only  be  looked  upon  as  the 
deliverance  of  life  from  the  bondage  of  mortality, 
a  bondage  more  to  be  feared  because  it  is  a  pleas- 
ant one." 

Verily,  as  Dr.  Roberts  says:  "Immortality  of 
man  is  the  one  assumption  that  gives  unity  and 
sanity  to  the  imiverse."  For  man  merely  to  live, 
work,  die,  without  any  hereafter,  what  for?  what 
good  ?  If  such  be  his  end,  in  what  would  consist, 
or  where  be  found,  the  sanity  of  his  creation,  and 
the  adaptation  of  all  this  marvelous  world  to  his 
uses,  enjoyments,  and  means  of  knowledge  and 
happiness?  The  world  could  exist  without  him, 
with  all  its  glories  and  blessings.  Seed  time  and 
harvest,  winter  and  summer,  could  come  and  go, 
but  what  for?  Of  what  avail  in  the  logic  of  wis- 
dom that  man  should  be  created  with  all  his  semi- 
divine  powers  and  intellect  merely  to  live  and  enjoy 
those  things  for  a  few  years  and  die  in  annihilation  ? 
Such  an  end  to  man  would  be,  it  seems  to  us,  an 
unsurmountable  reflection  upon  the  omnipotence, 
omniscience,  wisdom,  and  supposed  infinite  love 
of  God.     But  a  still  greater  reflection  upon  the 


Universal  Salvation  295 

wisdom  and  power  of  Deity  it  would  be  to  admit 
that  in  all  this  creation  of  myriads  of  immortal 
beings,  God's  purposes  were  so  fantastic,  or  so 
over-ruled,  or  controlled  by  Satan,  or  destiny, 
that  the  great  majority  of  the  human  race  are 
doomed  to  suffer  an  eternal  death  of  hopeless 
misery  after  this  life  is  over!  Literally,  if  all  but 
an  elect  few  are  so  doomed,  then  the  creation  of 
man  had  apparently  better  never  have  been.  But 
the  decrees  of  orthodoxy  were  bom  of  bigotry  and 
insanity.  The  truths  of  God's  infinite  wisdom 
and  love  brush  them  aside  as  mere  cobwebs. 


CHAPTER  XV 

SUMMARY    OF    BIBLICAL    CRITICISM 

THE  books  of  the  Hebrew  and  Christian  Bible 
compose  a  wonderful  collection.  As  a  com- 
pendium of  the  history,  religions,  legends,  and 
traditions,  of  the  myths,  folk-lore,  ethics,  and 
poetry  of  the  ancient  Hebrews,  and  indeed  gener- 
ally of  the  countries  bordering  on  the  eastern 
Mediterranean  Sea,  it  is  unique  and  of  inestim- 
able value.  There  is  no  other  book  on  earth  like 
it,  nor  any  of  such  transcendent  importance  to  all 
mankind.  It  is  a  many-sided  book.  It  contains 
sublime  ethics  and  revelations  of  deity,  heights  of 
oratory,  gems  of  poetry,  and  glimpses  of  a  future 
life,  which  for  grandeur,  simplicity,  originality  and 
beauty,  the  libraries  and  literature  of  all  nations 
and  all  times  may  be  challenged  in  vain  to  equal. 
Its  sketches  of  primitive  patriarchal  life  and  cus- 
toms are  more  fresh  and  charming,  old  as  they  are, 
than  any  modem  stories  of  romance.  Its  ethics 
are  the  truest  and  purest  of  any  of  the  holy  books 
of  other  religions,  and  hence  must  have  been  com- 
posed imder  divine  inspiration.  They  bear,  per 
se,  their  own  credentials  and  stamps  of  divinity, 
even  as  the  God  of  our  Bible  has  no  peer  in  the 

296 


Summary  of  Biblical  Criticism     297 

delineations  of  deity  in  the  other  bibles  of  the 
world,  grand  as  some  things  in  them  are.  Our 
Bible  contains  the  earliest  and  most  reliable  his- 
tory of  man  extant,  notwithstanding  some  imper- 
fections. The  truth  of  the  ethics  of  our  Bible  and 
their  adaptation  to  human  experience  and  needs 
is  self-evident.  They  are  really,  as  similar  ethics 
in  Zoroaster,  Buddha,  and  Confucius'  teachings, 
axiomatic  truths,  and  their  divine  origin  does  not 
depend  upon  Bible  miracles  or  history. 

The  prophets  who  were  inspired  to  teach  the 
moral  truths  to  their  fellow -men  may  have  been 
so  much  influenced  by  their  environments  of  su- 
perstition, imiversal  in  those  ancient  times,  as  to 
have  intermixed  much  of  the  history  they  wrote 
with  myths,  fables,  and  imreliable  traditions,  and 
in  their  simplicity  believed  and  penned  those  leg- 
ends they  found  in  common  use,  as  historical  facts. 
They  did  so  no  doubt,  and  honestly,  as  all  ancient 
historians  have  done.  But  the  light  of  the  moral 
sun  which  illuminated  their  minds  was  unclouded 
by  passion,  ignorance,  and  superstition.  The 
ethics  of  our  Bible  are  hence  the  world 's  heritage. 
But  the  historical  and  miraculous  narratives  in  it 
having  to  depend  upon  matters  of  memory,  writ- 
ings of  other  men,  traditions,  and  time,  like  all 
other  human  affairs,  depend  for  their  authenticity 
upon  evidence  and  proof.  And  whilst  regarding 
as  unauthentic  the  miraculous  stories  of  the  Bible, 
it  is  but  justice  to  say  that  many  of  them  are 


298  Evolution  of  Religions 

wonderful  conceptions  of  the  human  mind;  the 
grandest  and  most  poetic,  illustrating  the  higher 
culture  of  the  age,  and  those  of  inferior  char- 
acter the  lower  strata  of  ignorance  and  super- 
stition. 

Our  Bible  is,  we  say  once  for  all,  preeminently 
superior,  as  a  whole,  to  all  the  other  sacred  books 
of  the  world,  and,  notwithstanding  its  many  purely 
human  features  and  defects,  it  will  doubtless  ever 
remain  as  the  supreme  inspiration  of  divine  light 
to  the  world.  It  invites  from  everyone  the  most 
rigid  examination  of  its  claims  and  the  honest  ex- 
pression of  belief  or  disbelief.  The  unfair  and 
sometimes  ribald  commentaries  of  Voltaire,  Dide- 
rot, Rousseau,  Paine,  and  Ingersoll,  have  not  ma- 
terially diminished  the  luster  of  the  Bible  nor 
greatly  weakened  its  influence.  Doubtless  it  has 
lost  something  in  power,  truth,  and  beauty  from 
the  original  writings,  in  its  compilations  from  un- 
known authors,  and  in  its  many  translations  dur- 
ing thousands  of  years  into  various  different 
languages,  from  the  ancient  manuscripts.  How 
foolish  the  claim  of  the  Holy  Spirit  always  direct- 
ing compilers,  translators,  and  copyists  in  their 
work  and  keeping  them  from  committing  errors 
Why  did  not  the  Holy  Spirit,  as  means  of  avoid- 
ing errors,  instruct  the  workers  to  use  originally 
chapters,  verses,  pimctuation  marks,  vowels,  etc., 
and  indeed  teach  them,  in  the  beginning  of  the 
compilation    of    the    Bible    books,     the    art    of 


Summary  of  Biblical  Criticism     299 

printing?     Facts  are  wanted,  not  conjectures  or 
fictions. 

God  has  apparently  always  worked  on  earth, 
through  ordinary  human  agencies,  and  man  has 
had  to  use  his  intellect  to  discover  those  agencies. 
How  much  the  original  sense  of  the  Scriptures  has 
been  changed  in  controversial  matters  by  both 
Jews  and  Christians,  by  incorrect  renderings,  or 
even  interpolations  of  translators  and  copyists, 
who  wished  to  infuse  their  own  ideas  into  the  text 
as  the  correct  version  of  what  it  should  be,  it  is 
very  difficult  in  many  matters  of  controversy  now 
to  determine.  We  know,  however,  that  many 
emendations,  alterations,  and  additions  have  been 
made,  as  shown  by  the  late  revised  version  of  the 
Bible  and  by  comparisons  of  other  versions  and 
ancient  commentaries.  Even  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
than  which  there  is  nothing  grander  or  more  beau- 
tiful in  Scripture,  has  been  tampered  with  and  an 
addition  made  to  it.  The  Jewish  rabbins  taught 
in  the  Talmud  that  it  was  right  to  pervert  or 
change  any  text  of  Scripture  when  deemed  by 
them  to  be  for  the  interests  of  Judaism  to  do  so. 
In  view,  then,  of  errors,  alterations,  interpolations, 
and  even  contradictions,  in  some  statements,  if 
for  no  other  reason,  the  claim  of  Bible  inerrancy 
is  idle.  Especially  as  to  Scriptural  history,  bi- 
ography, chronology,  prophetic  visions  of  futurity 
which  have  been  tinfulfilled,  it  is  absurd,  says  Dr. 
Briggs,  "to  suppose  that  the  superintendence  of 


300  Evolution  of  Religions 

inspiration  extended  to  such  merely  human  mat- 
ters. Such  does  not  seem  to  have  been  the 
province  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  nor  is  the  welfare  of 
mortals,  here  or  hereafter,  involved  in  the  absolute 
accuracy  of  Bible  history  or  of  Bible  miracles. 
We  know  that  in  many  such  matters  it  is  not 
accurate." 

Even  as  to  biblical  doctrines  and  tenets,  there 
is,  as  Dr.  Briggs  further  truly  says,  "a  spirit  in 
man  which  prompts  many  writers  to  add  to  truths, 
which  they  have  received,  the  suggestions  of  their 
own  minds  as  to  the  sense  of  what  they  think  ought 
to  have  been  stated."  This  disposition  he  illus- 
trates by  the  instance  of  the  pious  fanatic,  Ignatius 
Loyola,  founder  of  the  order  of  Jesuits,  who 
boldly  taught  his  followers  that  Jesus  after  His 
resurrection  first  appeared  to  His  mother  before 
appearing  to  Mary  of  Magdala,  because,  he  said,  it 
was  the  proper  thing  for  Jesus  to  do  so,  that,  as 
"Mother  of  God,"  Jesus  must  first  have  been 
seen  by  His  mother  after  leaving  the  tomb. 
Loyola  required  the  brothers  of  his  order  so  to 
believe  and  teach,  although  the  Gospels  say  Jesus 
first  appeared  to  Mary  Magdalene.  Loyola,  with 
the  concurrence  of  Rome,  thus  perverted  a  plain 
statement  of  the  evangelists  to  accord  with  his 
fanatical  views,  thus  indorsing  also  an  ancient 
tradition  to  the  same  effect,  which  held  the 
evangelists'  statements  to  be  erroneous. 

In  fact,  the  Catholic  Church  held  for  centuries 


Summary  of  Biblical  Criticism     301 

that  the  early  traditions  and  oral  teachings  of  the 
Fathers  were  paramount  in  any  matters  of  dif- 
ference to  the  written  word  of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles,  and  substitutions  were  frequently  made, 
thus  subordinating  the  doctrine  of  plenary  inspira- 
tion to  mere  traditions.  Yet,  as  is  the  Bible  now, 
with  the  imperfections  of  the  many  centuries  of 
translations  out  of  languages  known  as  "dead," 
through  which  it  has  come  down  to  us,  it  is,  we 
repeat,  the  grandest  book  of  earth,  and  the  best, 
peerless  in  its  ethics  and  theology,  and  to  the 
honest  and  intelHgent  reader,  discarding  all 
bigotry  and  fossilized  creeds,  and  fearlessly  seek- 
ing the  truth,  not  alone  in  one  or  a  few  texts, 
but  in  the  spirit  and  concord  of  all  its  pages, 
teaching  a  pure  and  holy  religion,  comforting  in 
time,  and  safe  for  eternity.  Its  historical  narra- 
tives, Jewish  and  Christian  customs,  laws,  and 
miracles,  we  may  believe  in  or  reject  as  our  con- 
victions and  consciences  guide  us.  We  do  not 
need  to  believe  in  mysterious  doctrines,  unin- 
telligible or  incomprehensible.  There  are  enough 
grand,  plain,  clear-cut  truths  for  our  guidance. 
We  do  not  need  to  be  non-resistants,  communists, 
or  Adventists,  neither  are  we  required  to  eschew 
any  of  the  reasonable  and  healthful  pleasures  of 
life  for  asceticism,  penance  for  sins,  or  solitary 
fastings,  nor  forbidden  the  honest  accumulation 
of  property  by  industry  and  economy.  The 
world  is  for  all  to  be  happy  and  enjoy  life.     There 


302  Evolution  of  Religions 

are  privileges,  pleasures,  and  duties  for  all,  and  a 
wide  latitude  for  beliefs  according  to  the  general 
tenor  and  rational  interpretations  of  the  Bible. 
"  The  Scriptures,"  Jesus  said,  "  were  made  for  man, 
and  not  man  for  the  Scriptures." 


CHAPTER  XVI 

A  GENERAL  SUMMARY  OF  BIBLE  EXEGESIS 

AS  a  summary  of  what  historical,  ethnological, 
theological,  geological,  and  general  scientific 
examinations  of  the  Bible  by  eminent  scholars 
in  the  past  century  have  accomplished,  as  general 
conclusions  in  reference  to  the  most  important 
incidents  in  its  history  and  literature,  and  without 
going  more  fully  into  details  or  comments  than 
has  already  been  done  in  these  pages,  we  affirm 
the  following  conclusions  concerning  some  of  the 
most  important  historical  and  miraculous  narra- 
tives in  it  which  have  been  indubitably  established 
by  such  examinations,  and  will  doubtless  stand 
the  test  of  future  criticism. 

First.  The  creation  of  the  world  or  its  evolu- 
tion from  primitive  chaos  into  conditions  fitting 
it  for  the  existence  of  life,  vegetable  and  animal, 
certainly  antedates  the  accoimt  of  Genesis,  accord- 
ing to  Hebrew  chronology,  by  many  hundreds 
of  thousands,  perhaps  millions,  of  years  during 
the  Archaian,  or  Eozoic,  Paleozoic,  Mesozoic,  and 
Cenozoic  Ages.  The  "beginning,"  when  God 
created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  goes  back  into 
the  years  of  eternity,  and  only  the  Creator  knows 

303 


304         Evolution    of    Religions 

the  date.  Whether  our  earth  was  originally  an 
immense  body  or  matter  thrown  ofi  by  the  sun 
in  a  great  explosion  of  its  electrical  forces,  or 
formed  from  an  accumulation  and  aggregation 
during  countless  centuries  of  the  meteoric  masses 
whirling  through  illimitable  space,  imtil  finally 
consolidated  into  spherical  form  and  given  its 
present  orbit  by  Omnipotence,  we  shall  never  know 
unless  we  learn  it  in  the  future  life.  But  science 
teaches  that  for  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
years  after  such  creation  or  consolidation  of  its 
original  material,  the  earth  was  going  through  the 
formative  processes  which  left  its  mountains, 
plains,  hills,  valleys,  oceans,  seas,  and  rivers  as 
they  have  been  since  the  advent  of  man,  and 
filled  up  its  cavities  with  the  vast  deposits  of 
coals,  oils,  gases,  and  minerals  which  exist,  for  the 
use  of  man,  nearly  everywhere. 

Different  thermal  conditions  than  ever  known 
in  history  must  have  existed  for  centuries  at  some 
time  in  order  for  the  propagation  and  growth  of 
the  wonderful  vegetation  from  which  all  the  de- 
posits of  coal,  petroleum,  and  gases  which  now 
exist  were  formed  and  generated.  Neither  man 
nor  animals,  so  far  as  science  has  discovered,  were 
in  existence  during  those  periods,  nor  was  man 
in  existence  during  the  long  subsequent  period, 
when  the  earth  and  the  seas  were  inhabited  by  the 
monstrous  forms  of  ancient  extinct  fossil  animal 
life,  such  as  the  mastodon  and  the  immense  am- 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       305 

phibia  of  the  ancient  oceans.  In  the  "beginning" 
the  processes  of  creation,  as  narrated  in  Genesis, 
were  in  the  illimitable  past,  and  even  the  creation 
of  man  was,  doubtless,  many  thousands  of  years 
before  the  Mosaic  chronology,  as  computed  by 
Archbishop  Usher,  or  the  authors  of  the  Septu- 
agint  version  of  the  Bible. 

Very  few,  if  any,  scientists  now  place  any  reli- 
ance on  either  of  these  chronologies,  or  in  the  fab- 
ulous longevity  of  the  antediluvian  patriarchs. 
The  six  days  of  creation,  though  doubtless  used  by 
the  writer  or  compiler  of  the  Genesis  records  in  the 
ordinary  sense  of  the  word  "day,"  are  supposed 
now  by  most  scientists  and  Bible  scholars  to  mean 
periods  of  one  thousand  years  each,  or  even  much 
longer  periods,  corresponding  to  the  evolutions 
and  developments  of  the  various  processes  of 
creation  or  formation,  in  the  Cenozoic  Age  of  the 
world.  There  is  indeed  a  singular  correspondence 
in  the  probabilities  of  primeval  chaos  when  the 
"earth  was  without  form  and  void,  and  darkness 
was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep,"  and  the  recog- 
nized geological  order  of  the  creation  or  evolution 
of  the  flora,  sea  and  land,  animals,  and,  lastly,  of 
man,  with  the  narrative  in  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis,  affording  good  reasons  for  believing  that 
the  narrative  of  the  creative  evolution  was  inspired 
of  God. 

The  sages  of  ancient  Egypt,  Persia,  and  Baby- 
lon, from  whose  writings  and  traditions  Genesis 


3o6  Evolution  of  Religions 

was  doubtless  largely  compiled,  were  not  in  all 
probability  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  struc- 
ture of  the  earth,  and  the  indications  of  the  geo- 
logic ages.  Apart  from  the  narrative  of  creation 
in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  the  Bible  antedi- 
luvian history,  as  well  as  its  chronology,  is,  evi- 
dently, largely  mythical,  and  the  same  may  be 
said  of  its  narratives  down  to  the  time  of  Moses. 
After  his  time,  they  have  more  coherence  and  reli- 
ability, though  undoubtedly  many  of  its  pages, 
down  even  to  the  period  of  the  Davidic  dynasty, 
are  mixed  with  myths,  legends,  and  fables,  and 
yet  greatly  superior  to  all  sketches  and  fragments 
of  all  other  ancient  histories  of  that  remote  period, 
which  are  generally  entirely  imreliable.  The 
Davidic  empire  was  the  golden  age  of  Israel. 
David  and  Solomon  were  undoubtedly  great  men 
and  great  patrons  of  learning  and  philosophy,  and 
from  that  time  Hebrew  history  is  generally  accu- 
rate, though,  like  all  other  ancient  histories,  fre- 
quently marred  by  exaggerated  and  extraordinary 
legends. 

Second.  It  may  be  regarded  as  the  certain  re- 
sult of  discoveries,  by  the  investigations  and  pro- 
cesses of  the  Higher  Criticism,  that  Moses  did  not 
write  the  Pentateuch  in  its  present  form,  or  Book 
of  Job,  usually  ascribed  to  him;  that  Joshua  did 
not  write  the  book  bearing  his  name ;  that  David 
did  not  write  the  Psalter,  but  only,  at  most,  a  few 
of  the  sacred  songs;  that  Solomon  did  not  write 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       307 

the  Song  of  Songs  or  Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  and 
only  a  small  portion  of  the  Book  of  Proverbs; 
that  Isaiah  was  the  author  of  none  of  his  Book 
of  Prophecies  beyond  the  fortieth  chapter,  and 
that  most  of  those,  after  that  chapter,  were  written 
in  Babylon  during  or  after  the  exile ;  Jeremiah  did 
not  write  the  books  of  Kings  or  Lamentations; 
Ezra  did  not  write  the  books  of  Chronicles,  Ezra, 
or  Nehemiah. 

Says  Dr.  Briggs:  "The  great  mass  of  the  Old 
Testament  was  written  by  authors  whose  names 
or  connections  with  those  writings  are  lost  in 
oblivion.  If  this  is  destroying  the  Bible,  the 
Bible  is  destroyed  already.  But  who  tells  us  those 
traditional  names  were  the  authors  of  the  Bible? 
The  Bible  itself?  The  creeds  of  the  churches? 
Any  reliable  historical  testimony  ?  None  of  these ! 
Pure  conjectural  traditions.     Nothing  more."* 

The  books  of  Ruth,  Jonah,  Esther,  and  Daniel 
are  religious  historical  fictions  in  prose.  The 
authors  of  them  are  unknown.  Ruth  is  a  most 
beautiful  idyl  of  ancient  Hebrew  domestic  life 
and  womanly  devotion.  Boaz,  Ruth,  Naomi,  are 
doubtless  genuine  historical  characters.  The 
books  of  Job,  Ecclesiastes,  and  the  Song  of  Songs 
are  Hebrew  poems,  the  first  a  poetic  fiction. 
Psalms  is  a  collection  of  Israel's  sacred  songs, 
composed  by  various  authors,  including  Solomon, 
at  various  periods,  and  compiled  during  or  after 
*  "  Study  of  Holy  Scripture,"  p.  287. 


3o8  Evolution  of  Religions 

the  exile  with  the  other  books  into  one  Bible. 
The  same  may  be  said  of  Proverbs,  i.e.,  a  book  of 
moral,  economic,  social,  and  prudential  rules. 
None  of  these  nine  latter  books  are  probably  in- 
spired works,  excepting  only  in  the  sense  that  les- 
sons of  the  good,  pure,  and  beautiful  in  everything 
and  in  all  books  are  from  God. 

Third.  Judicially,  no  miracles  of  either  old  or 
new  dispensation,  nor  of  any  other  religion,  are 
literally  true,  or  at  least  sufficiently  authenticated, 
or,  as  Scotch  verdicts  sometimes  are  rendered,  "not 
proven.  "  Some  of  those  miracles  may  have  been 
natural  phenomena,  exaggerated.  Most  of  them 
are  undoubtedly  mythical  or  legendary,  and  were 
gathered  up  from  popular  superstitions  and  folk- 
lore by  the  writers  of  the  various  biblical  books. 
Among  the  most  prominent  of  the  legendary 
narratives  and  mythical  miracles  are: 

A.  The  Noachic  Deluge.  It  is  now  gener- 
ally held  by  Christian  scholars  that  the  Deluge, 
as  recorded  in  the  Bible,  was  local  and  not 
universal.  Nor  does  the  language  of  the  Bible 
necessarily  imply  that  it  was  universal.  The 
traditions  of  such  an  event  —  for  undoubtedly 
such  traditions  existed,  from  very  ancient 
times,  in  the  fabulous  histories  of  Babylon, 
China,  Greece,  Egypt,  and  India,  as  well  as  in 
Genesis — may  have  been  based  upon  the  fact 
of  some  great  seismic  convulsions  of  the  regions 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       309 

bordering  on  the  Mediterranean,  Persian,  Red 
seas,  and  the  Euphrates  River,  in  very  remote 
antiquity,  whereby  the  waters  may  have  over- 
whelmed the  adjacent  countries,  the  seats  of 
the  earliest  ci\41izations  known  on  earth.  If 
the  stories  of  the  great  longevity  of  the  ante- 
diluvian peoples  are  true,  the  earth  must  have 
had  a  vast  population  at  the  time  of  the  great 
cataclysm  if  universal,  and  the  story  of  only 
one  family  being  preserved  with  animals,  birds, 
and  reptiles,  gathered  from  all  quarters  of  the 
globe  into  the  ark,  is  quite  imreasonable.^ 

There  are  indications  on  the  earth's  surface 
of  the  erosions  of  mountains  and  hills,  and  the 
filling  up  of  valleys  by  some  great  force  which 
is  believed  by  scientists  to  have  been  a  glacial 
deluge  of  a  period  previous  to  the  existence  of 
man  and  animals  upon  earth,  and  which  prob- 
ably extended  all  over  the  earth.  According 
to  that  theory,  in  the  Alesozoic  or  beginning 
of  the  Cenozoic  Age,  the  whole  earth  had  a 
tropical  climate  and  was  covered  with  an 
immense  tropical  vegetation  from  pole  to  pole. 
Then  a  period  of  intense  cold  followed,  in  which 
all  the  earth  was  covered  with  snows,  finally 
condensing  into  glaciers  of  ice  many  thousands 
of  feet  in  thickness,  especially  in  the  polar 
regions.  Again  a  change  in  the  temperature 
of  the  earth's  atmosphere  occurred,   and  the 

'  "  Narratives  of  Genesis,"  by  Ryle,  p.  112. 


3IO  Evolution  of  Religions 

vast  masses  of  snow  and  ice  began  to  melt, 
submerging  the  earth,  the  vast  ocean  carrying 
on  its  surface,  from  the  polar  regions  to  the 
equatorial,  great  masses  of  Arctic  ice  and  rocks, 
and  crushing  through  mountains  and  all  ob- 
structions in  the  rush  of  its  mighty  waters 
towards  the  equator,  uprooting  in  its  course  and 
carrying  on  its  flood,  as  well  the  mighty  forests 
which  had  covered  the  earth  and  depositing 
them  in  valleys  to  form  the  vast  beds  of  coal 
and  the  laboratories  of  oils  and  gases  which  are 
found  in  such  almost  inexhaustible  quantities 
in  so  many  coimtries  of  the  world. 

I  had  the  great  pleasure  of  hearing  the  grand 
naturalist  and  scientist,  Professor  Louis  Agassiz, 
lecture  on  the  very  interesting  subject  of  the 
glacial  age  and  theory,  in  the  winter  of  1864 
at  the  Smithsonian  Museum  in  Washington, 
D.C.  When  the  glacial  deluge  occurred,  if  the 
theory  be  true,  —  and  it  accounts  for  many  re- 
markable changes  upon  the  earth's  surface, 
which  a  mere  temporary  submergence  of  waters 
could  not  have  occasioned,  as  well  as  for  the 
vast  formations  of  coals,  which  otherwise 
would  be  unaccountable,  — it  must  have  been 
in  a  geologic  age  before  the  Mosaic  chronology, 
and  the  creation  of  man,  for  no  human  being 
could  have  been  living  upon  the  earth  during 
the  glacial  period,  and  no  remains  of  men  or 
animals  are  found  in  the  great  coal  formations. 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       311 

So  that  the  glacial  deluge  could  not  have  had 
the  remotest  connection  in  time  or  fact  with  the 
Noachian  Deluge. 

B.  The  passage  of  the  Israelites  through  the 
wall  of  waters  of  the  Red  Sea  and  the  river 
Jordan.  These  events  have  already  been  suf- 
ficiently commented  on.  There  is  no  evidence 
whatever  in  Egyptian  records  or  monuments, 
as  there  would  have  been,  if  true,  corroborating 
the  Bible  accounts,  that  they  occurred,  as 
stated,  in  Exodus.  Possibly  the  Israelites 
may  have  passed  over  some  marshy  grounds 
bordering  the  sea  on  its  northern  extremity, 
on  their  migration  from  Egypt,  and  doubtless 
did  at  some  point  ford  the  river  Jordan  in  their 
passage  into  Canaan.  No  Egyptian  annals  or 
records  of  any  kind  have  ever  been  found 
commemorating,  or  even  referring  to,  the  pas- 
sage of  the  Red  Sea,  although  plenty  of  annals 
and  monumental  inscriptions  of  that  date,  and 
especially  of  the  monarch  who  then  ruled  over 
Egypt,  still  exist.  Herodotus,  the  Greek  his- 
torian, who  traveled  in  Egypt  about  450  B.C., 
and  who  wrote  fully  of  the  history,  religion,  and 
customs  of  the  people,  makes  no  mention  of  it. 
Nor  does  Manetho,  the  native  Egyptian  his- 
torian, who  wrote  about  275  b.c.  The  mummy 
of  the  Pharaoh,  Meneptha,  son  of  the  great 
Rameses  II,  in  whose  reign  the  ten  plagues  of 
Egypt  are  said  to  have  taken  place,  and  who 


312  Evolution  of  Religions 

was  overwhelmed  with  his  army  in  the  Red 
Sea,  according  to  the  song  of  Miriam,^  is  now 
said  to  be  in  the  British  Museum  in  London. 
It  was  found  in  the  sepulchers  of  the  kings  of 
Egypt  in  one  of  the  pyramids,  and  no  hiero- 
glyphs or  inscriptions  of  any  kind  on  his  sar- 
cophagus, or  tomb,  have  any  reference  to  these 
wonderful  events.  Indeed,  as  most  of  the  older 
books  of  the  Bible  were  originally  poems,  it  is  a 
question  whether  many  of  the  miraculous  stories 
were  not  merely  important  events  gilded  with 
the  extravagance  and  license  of  oriental  im- 
agery, and  not  penned  as  literal  statements  of 
facts. 

Few  intelligent  persons  now,  Jews  or  Christ- 
ians, believe  that  the  story  of  the  sun  and  moon 
standing  still  at  the  command  of  Joshua  was 
ever  intended  as  a  statement  of  fact.  It  is 
evidently  an  exaggerated  poetic  fiction  as  a 
finale  of  a  song  of  triumph  for  the  great  victory 
over  Israel's  foes. 

The  context  of  the  story  of  the  passage  of 
the  Red  Sea,  the  "strong  east  wind"  blowing 
the  shallow  waters  of  the  marshy  bayou  at 
its  northern  extremity  into  the  deeper  sea  and 
thus  making  a  way  for  the  Hebrew  host,  shows 
that  the  march  of  the  people  on  foot,  without 
animals  or  vehicles,  divested  of  any  poetic 
embellishment,  was  an   extraordinary,  but  not 

*  Exodus,  ch.  XV,  v.  19. 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       313 

supernatural  occurrence.  The  Egyptians  with 
their  horses  and  chariots  following  after  them 
over  the  boggy  ground  may  have  been  over- 
taken and  drowned  by  the  returning  tide  after 
the  subsidence  of  the  simoom/  And  so  divested 
of  the  garniture  of  florid  Asiatic  poetic  imagery 
and  supernatural  embellishments,  doubtless 
most  of  the  miracles  of  the  Scriptures  may  be 
similarly  resolved  into  natural  occurrences. 

C.  The  story  of  the  manna  falling  every 
morning,  and  the  flocks  of  quails  coming  every 
evening  and  alighting  by  millions  around  the 
camps  of  the  Israelites,  to  be  taken  for  their 
food,  and  indeed,  with  the  manna,  their  only 
food,  during  their  forty  years'  wanderings  in 
the  desert  of  northern  Arabia.  And  also  of  the 
stream  of  water  gushing  from  a  rock  at  the 
command  of  Moses,  following  and  meandering 
around  with  them  through  the  deserts  and  over 
the  moimtains  for  the  same  period.  One  ac- 
coimt  ^  says  this  stream  burst  out  from  the  rock 
in  the  beginning  of  their  migrations,  but  another 
and  later  accoiint  of  the  same  miracle,  possibly 
from  a  different  author,^  says  the  stream  began 
its  flow  near  the  close  of  their  joumeyings. 
Now,  did  the  stream  without  any  channel  run 
up  hill  and  down  valleys  and  over  moimtains 
and  burning  sands,  or  had  engineering,  cuttings 

'  Exodus,  ch.  xiv,  v.  21.  '  Exodus,  ch.  xvii. 

*  Numbers,  ch.  xx. 


3^4  Evolution  of  Religions 

and  fillings,  or  embanldngs  to  be  done?  It  is 
evidently  a  fable,  as  is  the  story  of  the  manna 
and  the  quails,  a  generic  product  of  that  land 
of  wonderful  legends.  No  earthly  commemo- 
ration of  the  poetic  fiction  is  to  be  found  in  the 
topography,  geology,  or  natural  scenery  of 
the  country,  or  in  any  contemporary  Baby- 
lonian or  Egyptian  history. 

Upon  no  rules  of  legal  evidence  of  any  his- 
torical events  can  these  narratives  be  sustained. 
To  believe  them  literally  is  to  fling  all  evidence 
to  the  winds,  and  be  ready  to  believe  in  every- 
thing supernatural  told  us,  simply  because  it 
comes  in  the  guise  of  religion. 

D.  The  story  of  Balaam  and  the  ass.  This 
is  so  utterly  absurd  that  one  wonders  if  it  was 
not  extracted  from  "  Baron  Munchausen,"  or  the 
"  Arabian  Nights."  It  is  incomprehensible  that 
millions  of  sensible  human  beings  have  for  ages 
believed  the  story  without  a  scintilla  of  proof. 
In  fact  it  is  so  utterly  unnatural  and  absurd  as  to 
be  incapable  of  proof.  The  story  of  the  walls  of 
Jericho  falling  prone  of  themselves  before  the  en- 
circling Hebrew  army,  using  no  arms,  or  engines 
of  war  for  their  reduction,  but  simply  blowing 
upon  rams'  horns,  is  nearly  as  silly  as  the  story 
of  Balaam  and  the  ass.  Moreover,  consider 
the  x'Ylmighty  Father  commanding  the  Israelite 
intruders,  against  whom  the  people  of  Jericho 
had  never  raised  an  arm,  to  slaughter  every 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       315 

man,  woman,  and  little  child  in  the  doomed 
city,  excepting  the  harlot  Rahab  and  her 
relatives.  That  command  alone  is  sufficient 
evidence  that  the  legend  is  not  true.  No 
wonder  that  the  thousand  and  one  religions  of 
earth  with  all  their  legions  of  miracles,  saints 
and  angels,  devils  and  fiends,  have  had  coimtless 
millions  of  votaries,  when  intelligent  cultured 
people  even  now  believe  such  legends  as  literal 
truths,  and  not  fabulous  or  allegorical.  One 
can  only  wonder  at  the  supineness  of  human 
credulity  when  reason  vacates  her  throne  over 
the  mind  at  the  behests  of  priestcraft  and 
superstition. 

E.  The  phenomena  of  the  sun  and  moon 
standing  still.  Really  of  the  earth  and  moon 
stopping  abruptly  for  a  day  in  their  revolu- 
tions round  the  sun  at  the  command  of  Joshua ! 
Enough,  methinks,  has  been  said  in  these  pages 
on  this  subject  already.  But  we  will  hazard 
a  few  more  considerations  on  the  stupendous 
story.  It  was  written,  most  probably,  as  an 
exaggerated  poetic  fancy  or  exultation  over  the 
defeat  of  the  Canaanitish  army.  Most  liberal 
Christians  and  advanced  Bible  scholars  believe 
the  story  was  written  by  Joshua,  or  whoever 
was  its  author,  as  a  poetic  fiction.  It  certainly 
was  original,  and  so  extravagant  that  no  other 
poet  has  ever  emulated  such  a  flight  of  fancy,  or 
is  ever  likely  to  do  so.     It  is  simply  amazing 


3i6  Evolution  of  Religions 

that  it  ever  was  believed,  as  it  has  been  for  so 
many  centuries  by  Jews,  Christians,  and 
Mohammedans,  as  a  hteral  fact,  and  especially 
since  the  Copemican  system  of  the  revolution 
of  the  earth,  moon,  and  planets  around  the 
Sim  has  been  imiversally  recognized  as  correct. 
Standing  as  a  supposed  fact,  this  story  alone 
casts  discredit  upon  all  Bible  miracles.  The 
belief  of  Christians  in  it,  as  well  as  the  beHef 
in  such  miracles  as  Balaam  and  the  ass,  and  of 
the  story  of  the  devils  going  into  the  herd  of 
swine,  is  a  stronger,  nay,  an  overwhelming 
argument  against  the  authenticity  of  those  and 
all  other  miracles,  a  stronger  argument  than  the 
mere  pubHcation  of  them,  for  these  may  have 
been  merely  written  as  allegories  or  popular 
myths,  but  the  beHef  in  them  as  facts  shows 
that  the  credulity  of  human  beings  in  stories 
of  the  supernatural  is  so  great  as  to  make 
ordinary  human  testimony  about  such  matters 
utterly  worthless.  No  amount  of  evidence  can 
prove  such  absurd  stories  to  be  true.  Intelli- 
gent reason  recoils  at  them.  It  is  derogatory 
to  the  attributes  of  God  to  suppose  He  would 
lend  His  power  to  the  performance  of  such 
miracles.  Any  person  who  can  beHeve  such 
stories  as  literal  facts,  can  easily  beHeve  any- 
thing whatever  of  a  miraculous  character  taught 
by  the  books  or  priests  of  his  reHgion.  Possibly 
God,  in  His  omnipotence,  could  so  arrest  the 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis      317 

movements  of  all  the  bodies  of  the  whole  solar 
system,  and  perhaps  also  of  all  the  suns  and 
their  attendant  planets  of  the  whole  iiniverse, 
which  most  likely  such  a  miracle  as  Joshua's 
would  involve,  and  might  suspend  all  the  laws 
of  momentum,  gravitation,  and  attraction,  but 
there  is  no  evidence  whatever  that  He  did  so, 
and  the  probabilities  are  coimtless  billions  to 
one  that  He  never  did  so.  And  if  He  did  so, 
in  Joshua's  case,  what  for  ?  Where  would  be  the 
relation  between  such  a  stupendous  exhibition 
of  Almighty  power  and  the  question  of  extermi- 
nating a  few  thousands  more  or  less  of  God's 
children,  even  though  they  were  Israel's  ene- 
mies? Such  a  miracle  would,  it  seems,  wreck 
the  imiverse!  Astronomy  teaches  that  God 
never  worked  such  a  miracle  in  the  case  of  even 
one  of  the  most  insignificant  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  But  as  a  mere  poetic  fiction  or  alle- 
gory, the  story  is  harmless,  and  such  it  probably 
is. 

F.  The  slaughter  of  five  htmdred  thousand 
soldiers  of  the  army  of  Israel  in  one  battle  by 
the  army  of  Judah.  This  has  been  hereinbefore 
sufficiently  discussed.  Also  the  destruction  of 
one  htmdred  and  fifty  thousand  men,  the  entire 
army  of  Sennacherib,  King  of  Assyria,  in  one 
night  by  an  angel  of  God.^ 

G.  The  story  of  Jonah.  Certainly  an  ex- 
travagant allegory,  but  under  that  guise  incul- 

»    Mitchell's  "  Isaiah,"  p.  45. 


3i8  Evolution  of  Religions 

eating  the  grand  moral  truth  that  God  cares  for 
all  men,  a  truth  much  needed  by  the  Israelites. 
Instead  of  the  poem  having  been  written  very 
anciently,  as  used  to  be  believed,  the  best 
biblical  critics  now  assign  to  its  composition  a 
date  during  the  exile  or  subsequently. 

H.  The  drama  of  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and 
Abednego,  and  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  seven 
times  heated  furnace  in  the  plain  of  Dura. 
Very  grand,  but  there  is  no  proof  of  it  histori- 
cally, or  otherwise,  which  there  ought  to  be  if 
true.  Berosus,  a  Chaldean  priest  of  high 
character,  wrote  a  history  of  Chaldea  about  the 
year  300  B.C.,  not  very  long  after  the  alleged 
miracle.  Many  fragments  of  his  work  exist,  but 
they  contain  no  reference  to  the  wonderful 
event.  No  mention  is  made  of  Daniel  or  of  the 
three  friends  who  were  cast  into  the  furnace. 
They,  as  well  as  Daniel,  were  doubtless  fictitious 
personages.  The  book  was  evidently  written 
long  after  Nebuchadnezzar's  time,  and  sub- 
sequently to  the  death  of  Alexander  the  Great, 
for  it  contains  frequent  allusions,  veiled  under 
the  guise  of  predictive  prophecy,  to  the  great 
Macedonian  conqueror,  and  the  successors  to 
his  dismembered  empire.  It  was  probably 
written  by  a  Jewish  rabbi,  but  is  full  of 
much  later  Christian  interpolations.  It  is 
as  great  a  favorite,  almost,  of  millennial 
dreamers  and  Second  Adventists,  as  the  Apoc- 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       319 

alypse  of  Revelation,  and  equally  as  iinsub- 
stantial. 

If  we  must  believe  everything  that  comes 
down  to  us  in  so-called  sacred  books  without 
other  evidence  than  the  books  themselves,  then 
we  might  as  well  believe  the  absurd  fables  of 
the  Hindoo  Vedas,  and  the  Finland  Kalavelas, 
as  well  as  the  ancient  legends  of  Zoroastrianism, 
Buddhism,  and  Islamism.  Advanced  Bible 
scholars  now  generally  regard  the  Book  of 
Daniel  as  a  religious  romance  written  to  en- 
force great  moral  truths,  and  especially  a  belief 
in  the  absolute  certainty  of  protection  and 
safety  for  those  who  trust  in  God.  There  is  not 
a  particle  of  commemorative  or  corroborative 
evidence  of  the  furnace  story,  or  of  Daniel 
having  been  thrown  into  a  den  of  lions  and 
afterwards  coming  out  imharmed,  or  of  such  a 
person  having  at  any  time  been  made  the  chief 
prince  or  deputy  ruler  of  the  kingdom  of 
Persia. 

/.  The  Book  of  Esther,  Queen  of  Ahasuerus, 
King  of  Persia,  is  a  romance  pure  and  simple, 
with  little,  if  any,  substratum  of  facts.  It 
was  written  probably  to  enforce  the  same  moral 
ideas  as  the  Book  of  Daniel.  There  are  extant 
contemporary  Persian  and  Babylonian  histories 
of  those  times,  and  not  one  word  of  the  incidents 
related  in  either  Daniel  or  Esther  is  foimd  in 
them.     No  such  personage  as  Esther  probably 


320  Evolution  of  Religions 

lived.  Certainly  the  events  mentioned  in  the 
book  are  such  as  no  historian  of  ancient  Persia 
would  fail  to  notice.  Can  we  believe  that 
first  many  Jews,  and  subsequently  seventy-five 
thousand  Persians,  were  murdered,  as  the  out- 
come of  the  Agagite  conspiracy,  and  that  no 
historian  would  record  the  story  of  Queen 
Esther,  and  such  turmoils  and  slaughter  ?  How 
came  Haman,  the  Agagite,^  with  his  family  and 
race  to  be  so  numerous  and  powerful  in  distant 
Persia,  when,  according  to  the  First  Book  of 
Samuel,  the  last  of  that  tribe  of  people,  so  hated 
by  Israel,  and  Israel's  God,  had,  centuries 
before,  been  utterly  exterminated  by  Saul,  King 
of  Israel,  and  Samuel  the  Prophet,  as  they  had 
once  before  that  time  been  nearly  exterminated 
by  Joshua  in  the  wilderness  of  Arabia  ?  ^  The 
destruction  of  Haman  and  the  last  of  the  tribe 
of  the  Amalekites  seems  to  have  been  the  great 
sensational  feature  of  the  drama  which  the 
writer  of  the  book  was  working  up  for  the 
delectation  of  the  Jews,  the  hereditary  enemies 
of  the  Amalekites,  from  whom  the  Agagites 
sprung. 

J.  Jesus  Christ  through  His  mysterious  soul, 
birth,  and  divine  endowments  of  wisdom  and 
power,  was  spiritually  Son  of  God,  and  naturally 
bom  of  Joseph  and  Mary,  was  also  Son  of  man, 
and,  through  Joseph,  of  the^lineage  and  blood 

»  First  Book  of  Samuel,  ch.  xv,  v.  8.      *  Exodus,  ch.  xvii. 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       321 

of  King  David,  thus  uniting  in  himself  all  the 
attributes  and  characteristics  predicted  of  the 
"  Messiah  "  by  the  prophets.  He  never  gave  any 
indorsement  to  the  legend  of  the  theophanic 
conception,  nor  was  it  ever  taught  until  many 
years  after  His  Crucifixion,  and  then  probably 
only  as  it  was  evolved  in  the  halo  with  which 
time  and  love  and  veneration  had  enshrined 
Him.  Neither  of  the  Gospels,  in  present  form, 
was  in  existence  until  some  time  after  his  death, 
probably  in  the  second  century.  Some  of  the 
Apostolic  Epistles  speak  of  a  "Gospel,"  or 
"the  Gospel,"  but  none  of  the  Gospels  of 
Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  or  John,  and  hence  they 
must  have  been  compiled  after  all  the  Epistles 
were  written.  The  citations  of  Matthew  and 
Luke,  from  Old  Testament  books,  are  inappli- 
cable, but  show  the  apparent  necessity  to  their 
minds  of  sustaining  the  legend  by  them,  and 
that,  without  the  support  of  such  references, 
the  story  of  the  virginal  conception  would 
hardly  have  gained  credence  even  in  that  age 
of  supernatural  beliefs. 

St.  John  in  the  first  chapter  of  his  Gospel 
evidently  speaks  of  a  soul  conception,  bom 
with  the  body,  and  it  was  evidently  of  this 
spirit  birth  in  and  with  his  natural  body  that 
Jesus  made  the  mysterious  declaration  of  His 
having  come  from  God  and  that  before  "Abra- 
ham  was,  I   am."      His   mother   Mary,    wor- 


322  Evolution  of  Religions 

shiped  by  the  Catholic  Church  as  the  "  Mother 
of  God,"  contrary  to  the  divine  teaching  of 
the  eternity  and  self-existence  of  God,  not- 
withstanding the  angelic  announcement  which 
is  said  to  have  been  made  to  her  of  His  birth, 
never  seemed  to  realize  that  Jesus  was  other 
than  her  and  Joseph's  son.  In  the  absence,  as 
hereinbefore  stated,  of  any  evidence  that  Mary 
was  a  daughter  of  King  David's  line,  if  Joseph 
was  not  Jesus'  father,  then  the  citations  and 
references  from  the  prophets  as  to  the  birth  of 
a  Messiah  or  Prince  of  David's  blood  were 
inapplicable  to  Jesus. 

There  are  no  reasons  for  supposing  that  Jesus 
knew  of  the  story  of  His  miraculous  birth. 
He  never,  even  remotely,  alluded  to  it,  but 
seemed  to  teach  that  He  had  been  endowed  with 
a  preexistent  soul  which  came  from  and  had 
been  with  His  Father  God.  He  was  aware  of 
the  universal  recognition  given  Him  by  all  the 
people  who  knew  Him  from  childhood  as  the 
son  of  "Joseph,"  the  carpenter,  and  no  word  or 
intimation  did  He  ever  give  that  such  recog- 
nition of  Himself,  or  of  His  brothers  and  sisters, 
was  not  correct.  Romans  and  Galatians  teach 
distinctly  that  Jesus  was  of  natural  parentage 
and  birth.'  Had  it  not  been  thought  essential, 
during  the  second  century,  when  the  Gospels 
were  compiled,  in  order  to  sustain  the  atone- 

^  Romans,  ch.  i,  v.  3.     Galatians,  ch.  iv,  v.  4. 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       323 

merit  theory,  that  Jesus  should  have  been  bom 
immaculate,  the  idea  of  His  theophanic  con- 
ception would  never  have  been  originated. 
With  the  eariiest  worshipers  of  the  one  true 
God,  the  ancient  Zoroastrians,  disbelieving  in  the 
virtue  or  necessity  of  any  blood  atonement,  or 
any  other  atonement  or  sacrifice  for  sins,  except- 
ing by  the  repentance  of  the  sinner  himself,  and 
his  pardon  thereupon  by  the  only  infinite  re- 
deemer, we  must,  of  necessity,  believe  the  story 
is  mythical.  In  addition  we  note  here  that  the 
two  Gospels  of  Matthew  and  Luke  speak  of 
the  "Espousals"  of  Joseph  and  Mary  before 
the  conception  of  Jesus,  and  of  no  subsequent 
marriage,  so  they  were  really  husband  and  wife 
at  the  time,  as  they  were  always  afterwards 
recognized. 

K.  The  narrative  of  the  temptation  of  Jesus 
by  Satan  has  already  been  sufficiently  criticised 
in  these  pages.  There  is  not,  and  from  the 
nature  of  the  case,  could  not  possibly  have 
been,  any  external  evidence  to  support  the  story, 
and  internally  the  reasons  for  discarding  it 
from  the  Bible  as  untrue  and  sacrilegious  are, 
we  think,  overwhelming. 

L.  The  story  of  the  angel  descending  from 
heaven  at  certain  times  to  disturb  the  waters 
of  the  Pool  of  Bethseda,  in  St.  John's  Gospel,* 
for  the  purpose  of  imparting  miraculous  proper- 

1  Gospel  of  St.  John,  ch.  v,  vs.  2-9. 


324  Evolution  of  Religions 

ties  to  the  waters,  has  been  discarded  from  the 
revised  version  of  the  New  Testament  by  the 
able  scholars  who  made  the  revision  as  an  in- 
terpolation. The  story  of  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery,  and  Jesus'  conversation  with  her,  was 
also  virtually  rejected  by  the  revisionists  as  an 
interpolation,  but  permitted  to  remain  in  the 
Gospel,  probably  on  account  of  its  lesson  of  mercy 
and  repentance.  We  merely  refer  to  these  two 
comparatively  unimportant  incidents  to  help 
illustrate  to  what  extent  interpolations  in  the 
original  Gospels  and  other  biblical  books  in  the 
early  ages  were  possible  and  probable,  when 
the  fanaticism,  bigotry,  or  peculiar  sectarian 
views  of  the  translator,  redactor,  or  copyist 
made  it  seem  to  him  advisable  in  the  interest 
or  creed  of  his  sect  or  party. 

M.  The  story  of  the  legion  of  devils  being 
cast  out  of  the  insane  man  by  Jesus  and  receiv- 
ing from  Him  permission  to  go  into  a  herd  of 
swine  nearby,  and  actually  entering  into  them 
and  driving  them  into  the  sea,  is  so  absurd  and 
out  of  place  in  a  book  of  divine  ethics,  that  one 
can  only  wonder  how  it  ever  got  into  the  evange- 
list's biography.  It  is  imdoubtedly  from  its 
silly  character  an  interpolation  by  some  copyist 
who  had  heard  or  seen  the  legend  and  believed 
it.  It  ought  to  have  been  discarded  by  the 
revisionists  and  put  into  Rev.  Dr.  Pick's  col- 
lection of  Apocryphal  legends  of  the  Savior 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       325 

once  believed  in,  but  now  -universally  discarded. 
Such  foolish  tales  disfigure  the  Good  Book,  and 
tend  to  impair  even  the  force  of  its  grand  moral 
lessons.  This  and  a  few  other  miracles,  besides 
several  others  of  the  same  quality  herein 
referred  to,  should  have  been  expurgated  from 
the  Bible  by  the  revision  committees  as  hardly 
worthy  to  be  retained  therein,  even  as  curiosities 
of  ancient  literature  and  beliefs.  As  old 
legends  they  are  valueless  and  unattractive 
even  as  supposed  allegories  or  myths,  really 
answering  no  apparent  good  purpose  what- 
ever. 

N.  No  evidence  whatever  has  ever  been 
foimd  corroborating  the  story  of  the  super- 
natural darkness  which  is  said  to  have  enveloped 
the  world  at  the  time  of  Jesus'  Crucifixion,  or  in 
proof  of  the  statement  in  St.  Matthew^  that 
many  of  the  dead  in  the  sepulchers  around 
Jerusalem  arose  from  their  tombs  and  were 
seen  by  their  relatives  and  friends  in  the  city. 
This  was  a  most  astonishing  circumstance,  if 
true,  and  it  certainly  would  have  been  at  once 
heralded  all  over  Jerusalem  and  the  surround- 
ing world.  Was  it  so  done?  We  answer  no, 
because  it  was  never  heard  of,  or  published 
elsewhere  than  in  Matthew's  Gospel.  Why  did 
not  the  other  three  evangelists  mention  the 
amazing  occurrence?      Why  did  not  the  Apos- 

1  St.  Matthew,  ch.  xxvii,  vs.  52,  53. 


326  Evolution  of  Religions 

tolic   Epistles  refer  to   it  as  corroborative  of 
mortal  resurrection? 

Dr.  Briggs'  "argumentum  ad  silentiam"  in 
this  case  is  alone  sufficient  to  refute  the  story. 
It  is  a  legend  pure  and  simple.  Josephus  forty 
or  fifty  years  afterwards  wrote  his  book  of  Jewish 
antiquities  and  certainly  from  his  silence  had 
never  heard  the  story,  nor  of  the  earthquake. 
He  was  a  believer  in  miracles,  for  he  indorses  all 
the  old  Bible  miraculous  stories,  and  would  have 
undoubtedly  referred  to  these  had  they  been 
commonly  talked  of.  He  was  a  boy  of  eighteen 
or  twenty  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  the  Cruci- 
fixion. If  the  story  of  the  resurrected  dead 
saints  are  true,  whatever  became  of  their  bodies 
again?  After  the  excitement  attending  upon  the 
Crucifixion  was  over,  did  they  visit  Jesus  to  honor 
Him,  and  then  go  back  to  their  lonely  tombs  to 
become  dust  and  ashes  again  ?  Or  did  they  remain 
on  earth  for  days  or  years  and  finally  die  natural 
deaths  a  second  time,  or  become  "wandering 
Jews"  forever,  like  the  hero  of  Eugene  Sue's 
celebrated  romance  of  that  title?  At  least,  it 
would  naturally  be  supposed  that  having  thus 
cast  off  the  garments  of  death  and  been  resurrected 
to  mortal  life  again  they  would  certainly  remain 
on  earth  to  greet  the  Savior  after  His  resurrection, 
or  possibly  stay  and  be  with  Him  until  His 
Ascension,  and  by  analogy  with  what  we  are  told 

4498 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       327 

the  holy  dead  will  do  after  reanimation  at  the  gen- 
eral resurrection,  ascend  with  Him  from  Mount 
OHvet  before  the  eyes  of  Jesus'  wondering  dis- 
ciples. But  they  are  never  further  heard  of  or 
noticed  by  the  evangelist.  We  are  left  in  mystery 
and  wonder  to  imagine  what  became  of  those 
resurrected  saints  after  they  were  seen  and  con- 
versed with  by  their  living  friends  in  Jerusalem. 
Presumably  those  reanimated  saints,  from  the 
tenor  of  the  narrative,  returned  to  their  graves 
soon  after  Jesus'  resurrection,  there  again  to 
resume  the  ashes  and  habiliments  of  death.  If 
so,  what  was  the  object  of  their  temporary  resur- 
rection and  resumption  of  mortal  garb,  and  what 
good  did  they  accomplish?  Did  they  appear  in 
Jerusalem  in  the  cerements  of  the  tomb  or  in  the 
garb  of  the  day,  and  if  so,  how  were  their  garments 
furnished  them?  They  were  probably  Jewish 
saints  who  knew  not  Jesus.  Why  were  they 
reanimated  and  how  many  were  they?  Matthew 
says:  " Many  bodies  arose."  ^  And  why  were  the 
friends  and  relations  who  saw  and  doubtless  con- 
versed w4th  those  reanimated  dead,  in  the  holy 
city,  forever  mute  and  dumb  about  the  inter- 
views? Not  one  of  them  ever  told  the  story  of 
the  astounding  visit  of  their,  maybe,  long  ago 
departed  friends,  and  of  the  secrets  of  the  unseen 
world,  imparted  by  them,  so  far  as  the  world  has 
ever    been    informed.     Matthew,    alone    of    the 

^  Matthew,  ch.  xxvii,  vs.  52-53. 


328  Evolution  of  Religions 

evangelists,  tells  the  story  of  the  resurrected 
dead,  and  he  is  silent  on  all  those  other  questions. 

From  the  manner  and  context  of  its  inter- 
jection into  his  Gospel,  it  looks  like  an  interpolated 
legend,  added  at  some  time,  in  some  compilation, 
by  an  enthusiast  or  fanatic.  We  have  read  many 
lives  of  Christ  by  orthodox  writers,  and  in  not  one 
of  them  are  the  questions  naturally  suggested  by 
the  story  in  Matthew  of  the  resurrected  dead  ever 
even  broached.  Methinks,  if  the  story  were  true, 
the  reanimated  saints  would  have  long  remained 
in  Jerusalem  as  an  irrefutable  object  lesson  in 
themselves  to  all  the  people  of  the  certainty  of 
resurrection  of  the  dead  and  immortality.  In  no 
way  otherwise  could  such  a  lesson  have  been 
given,  and  it  would  forever  have  silenced  the 
disbelieving  Sadducees,  as  it  would  have  abso- 
lutely attested  the  truth  of  the  Pharisees  and 
Jesus'  teaching  of  the  resurrection.  But  the 
saints  come  and  go  for  a  few  hours  possibly,  in 
silent  procession,  and  then  like  Hamlet's  ghost 
"troop  back  to  their  tombs,"  and  that  is  all. 

Now  why  are  people  required  by  the  Christian 
ministry  to  believe  such  unnatural  and  entirely 
unauthenticated  legends?  Is  it  simply  because 
we  find  them  in  our  Bible,  and  because  they  have 
been  there  for  centuries  (many  of  them  of  dense 
ignorance),  originally  written  there  we  know 
not  certainly  when,  where,  or  by  whom?  Or 
because,  like  the  silversmiths  of  Ephesus,  they 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis      329 

realize  that  the  great  orthodox  temple  would  fall 
and  crumble,  and  their  occupation  be  gone,  if 
such  stories  were  classed  as  mere  legends  ?  Where 
is  the  evidence,  or  even  the  probabiUties,  of  the 
truth  of  such  stories?  The  masses  of  the  intelli- 
gent Jews,  who  then  lived,  did  not  beheve  the 
supernatural  incidents  said  to  have  been  attendant 
upon  the  Crucifixion,  even  if  they  then  heard  of 
them.  We  are  told  those  who  indited  them  were 
inspired  and  could  only  write  the  truth.  But  who 
were  they,  and  how  do  those  who  tell  us  they  were 
inspired  know  any  more  about  the  fact  of  inspira- 
tion than  those  to  whom  they  tell  it?  Their 
Gospels  have  many  differences.  Such  is  the  claim 
which  the  priesthood  of  every  religion  has  always 
urged  to  support  all  reHgions  and  all  miracles. 
Out  of  a  dozen  or  more  Gospels  of  Jesus'  life  by 
as  many  various  authors,  the  four  of  Matthew, 
Mark,  Luke,  and  John  were  only  adopted  as 
canonical  by  a  coimcil  of  bishops  in  the  fourth 
century  a.d.  Several  of  those  other  Gospels  are 
still  used  in  Armeni^  Egypt,  and  Abyssinia.  But 
suppose,  as  we  believe,  those  who  originally  penned 
the  books  of  the  Bible,  no  matter  who  they  were, 
and  whether  they  were  the  authors  whose  names 
are  given  to  the  various  books  or  not,  were  inspired 
to  teach  of  God  and  His  attributes  and  His  moral 
laws,  and  those  lessons  only,  and  incidentally  of 
their  own  volitions,  wrote  the  biographical  and 
historical  records,  why  necessarily  must  all  they 


S3^  Evolution  of  Religions 

wrote  about  mere  human  matters  be  regarded 
as  inspired  of  God?  Certainly  if  inspiration  was 
given  holy  men  only  to  teach  of  God  and  man's 
duties  to  Him  and  their  fellow-men,  there  was  no 
especial  reason  why  it  should  be  given  to  them  to 
impart  scientific,  astronomical,  geological,  geo- 
graphic, or  historic  knowledge.  In  truth,  the 
Bible  itself  shows  it  was  not  given  for  such  pur- 
poses. It  was  not  plenary  inspiration  for  all 
purposes,  but  only  special  inspiration  to  impart 
religious  truths.  This  applies  as  well  to  other 
religions  and  to  their  histories  and  miracles  as  to 
ours.  What  good  to  the  world,  excepting  for 
merely  educational  advantages,  would  divine 
enlightenment  in  reference  to  history,  sciences, 
poetry,  traditions,  etc.,  be?  Why  was  it  neces- 
sary for  the  welfare  of  men  that  the  ancient  sages 
should  have  such  universal  inspiration?  At  any 
rate  the  Bible  clearly  shows  they  did  not  have  it. 
The  knowledge  they  could  thus  have  imparted, 
as  inspired,  might  have  made  men  more  intelligent, 
but  not  necessarily  any  better. 

The  Bible  nowhere  teaches  that  its  kings, 
lawgivers,  prophets,  and  priests  had  universal 
inspiration.  Many  of  the  laws  and  ordinances  of 
Moses  prove  in  themselves  that  he  was  not  inspired 
as  a  lawgiver,  or  even  as  the  author  of  ordinances 
and  forms  of  religious  worship.  The  missions  of 
the  prophets  and  priests  were  evidently  solely 
to  teach  moral  and  religious  truths.     When  they 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       331 

iindertook  to  write  history  and  teach  astronomy, 
geography,  etc.,  the  books  show  they  were  fre- 
quently in  error.  So  Jesus  taught  of  Moses. 
We  may  say  absolutely,  upon  the  warrant  of  the 
Bible  itself,  that  the  only  test  of  inspiration  is 
exalted  goodness  and  the  divine  truths  taught 
of  God  and  the  relations  of  men  to  Him  and  to 
each  other,  and  such  inspiration  was  only  given 
of  God  for  His  glory  and  for  human  welfare. 
Hence  miracles,  if  permitted  by  Deity  for  attesta- 
tion of  inspiration,  would  be  enacted  and  be 
visible  in  all  ages  and  all  countries  for  such 
purposes,  and  their  authenticity  would  be  such  as 
none  could  question  or  disbelieve.  God,  we 
believe,  in  His  all-wise  providence,  has  never 
permitted  any  miracles  excepting  as  they  are 
foimd  in  His  creation  and  works  of  nature,  which 
all  can  see  and  explore.  The  mission  of  inspira- 
tion is  to  teach  men  higher  and  grander  moral 
truths  than  they  can  learn  merely  from  nature. 

"  Holy  men  of  old  spake  as  they  were  moved  by 
the  Holy  Spirit,"  so  says  St.  Peter,  so  the  Bible 
everywhere  teaches.  But  why  should  the  Holy 
Spirit  undertake  the  mission  of  inspiring  men  of 
the  things  they  could  learn  as  well  from  their 
fellows  or  could  teach  them  as  well  from  their  own 
knowledge?  Hence  in  its  historical  and  bio- 
graphical narratives,  its  chronology,  astronomy, 
and  geography,  many  of  its  civil  laws  and  social 
and    domestic    regulations,    purporting   to    have 


332  Evolution  of  Religions 

come  directly  from  God,  we  know  there  are  many 
errors,  and  that  inspiration  cannot  be  predicated 
thereof,  despite  the  dogma  of  orthodox  infalli- 
bility. We  think  we  have  given  many  good 
reasons  in  these  pages  for  this  assertion.  God 
knows  we  only  seek  the  truth,  and  prayerfully 
we  have  sought  it.  We  affirm  the  sufficiency  of 
the  Scriptures  for  moral  light,  and  that  any  honest 
intelligent  man  or  woman  endowed  with  ordinary 
knowledge  and  common  sense  has  as  patent  a 
right  to  judge  of  biblical  infallibility  and  the 
truth  of  everything  in  its  various  books  and 
Epistles,  as  any  other  man,  be  he  pope,  cardinal, 
bishop,  or  priest,  and  no  man  or  body  of  men, 
council,  synod,  or  propaganda,  has  authority 
from  God  to  pronounce  "Anathema  Maranatha" 
on  any  human  being  for  anything  in  religion  he 
or  she  may  honestly  believe  or  teach,  if  no  moral 
laws  or  social  proprieties  are  infringed.  Any 
declaration  to  the  contrary,  by  any  ecclesiastical 
authority,  is  but  an  arrogant  assumption  by  fel- 
low-men and  an  infringement  of  religious  liberty. 
God  never  authorized  any  mortal  to  be  styled 
by  his  fellow-mortals,  "Holy  Father,  His  Grace, 
His  Reverence,  Lord  Cardinal,  Archbishop,  or 
Bishop,"  nor  any  of  such  assumed  dignitaries  to 
sit  in  judgment  upon  anyone's  religious  belief 
or  mode  of  worshiping  God.  Each  human  being 
is  accountable  to  Him  alone  for  such  matters, 
and    any    attempt    to    influence    religious    belief 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       333 

otherwise  than  by  argument  and  persuasion  is 
persecution.  If  reverence  is  ever  due  to  men  at 
all  in  a  religious  sense,  it  should  be  accorded  only 
to  the  pure,  good,  and  imselfish,  be  they  of  high 
or  low  estate. 

We  do  know  that  many  things  in  the  Bible  are 
not  of  God,  that  many  of  its  miracles  are  but 
legends,  and  some  of  its  laws  are  unjust.  Their 
character  and  environments  alone  prove  them 
such.  Some  of  the  miracles  have  doubtless  a 
substratum  of  fact,  but  it  is  often  difficult  to 
separate  the  fact  from  the  allegorical  or  fabulous 
environment.  There  are  historical  statements  in 
it  which  are  imtrue  or  exaggerated;  some  con- 
tradictory narratives  both  of  which  cannot  be 
correct;  some  laws,  rites,  and  doctrines  contrary 
to  our  human  sense  of  truth  and  justice.  Hence 
we  are  required  by  the  Bible's  grand  general  pre- 
cepts as  M^ell  as  by  our  manhood  and  moral  sense, 
to  examine  and  sift,  as  we  can,  all  its  evidences 
for  ourselves,  "to  search  the  Scriptures"  and 
believe  only  as  our  reason  and  conscience  are 
convinced.  There  is  now  abundant  evidence 
external,  as  well  as  in  the  Bible  itself,  to  support 
those  statements,  owing  mainly  to  the  labors  of 
many  great  scholars  in  the  past  hundred  years, 
showing  conclusively  that,  however  inspired  and 
inerrant  its  ethics  may  be,  its  historical,  chrono- 
logical, biographical,  supernatural,  and  scien- 
tific teachings  were  not  inspired,  but  had  in  them 


334  Evolution  of  Religions 

many  errors.  Many  of  the  Mosaic  laws  and  all 
his  sacrificial  rites,  if  indeed  Moses  was  their 
author,  which  is  very  doubtful,  we  aver,  without 
hesitation,  from  their  nature  only,  never  came 
from  God.* 

Jesus  Christ  was,  we  believe,  bom  of  human 
parentage,  with  the  gift  of  a  nature  divine,  the 
greatest,  best,  and  most  highly  endowed  being 
of  whom  history  has  any  record.  There  can  be 
no  doubt  of  His  life,  character,  and  teachings ;  the 
evidence  is  overwhelming.  He  was  truth  personi- 
fied, and  all  He  did  and  all  His  life  was  in  accord 
with  His  character  and  mission  as  the  Savior  of 
men,  by  redeeming  them  from  their  sins  and 
follies.  No  other  being  fills  the  place  in  history 
He  always  had  and  ever  will  fill.  Yet  from  His 
own  hand  we  have  not  a  line.  All  His  works  and 
sermons  are  hearsay,  traditional,  and  were  trans- 
mitted to  the  world  by  His  followers.  Why  it 
was  that  His  words  in  His  own  hand,  in  their 
original  purity,  were  not  given  to  the  world  is  a 
mystery.  Much  controversy  over  them  would 
apparently  have  been  avoided,  and  many  irrational 
creeds  would  never  have  been  formulated.  He 
knew  best.  But  after  His  departure  from  the 
world    it    soon     became    filled    with    wonderful 

*  Brown's  "  Chronicles  in  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  vol. 
i.P-397;  Sayce's  "  Early  History  of  the  Hebrews,"  1897  edi- 
tion, p.  146;  H.  E.  Ryle,  "  Narratives  of  Genesis,"  1892  edi- 
tion, p.  87;  Julius  Wellhausen's  "  History  of  Israel." 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       335 

legends  of  supernatural  works  performed  by  Him, 
and  these  increased  naturally  in  that  ignorant 
and  superstitious  age  in  number,  variety,  and 
extravagance  as  the  years  passed  on,  and  many  of 
them,  but  only  a  tithe  of  those  current,  were  in 
the  generations  afterwards  interwoven  into  the 
Gospels,  with  some  dilutions  of  His  teachings,  by 
the  evangeHsts,  who  adopted  the  current  beliefs 
of  His  supernatural  works  in  their  day.  Many 
Gospels  were  published,  some  very  extravagant, 
which  still  wholly  or  partly  exist.  Whether  any 
of  the  miracles  were  realities,  we  do  not  know. 
Some  certainly  were  not.  None  have  been 
proven  by  any  external  testimony,  not  even  the 
testimony  of  the  Apostolic  Epistles.  But  in 
subsequent  ages  they  were  all  believed,  because 
foimd  in  the  Gospels,  just  as  the  followers  of  all 
other  religions  beUeved  in  their  sacred  books, 
with  all  their  miracles,  and  just  as  the  Mormons 
now  believe  in  the  miracles  of  the  Book  of  Mormon, 
which  occurred,  if  at  all,  thousands  of  years  before 
that  book  was  ever  heard  of. 

No  authenticity  to  miracles  can  be  given  them 
by  human  belief,  foimded  on  merely  human 
story.  There  is  no  use  to  mince  words  on  this 
subject.  Men  in  all  ages  have  been  prone  to 
invent  and  believe  wonderful  stories  about  great 
warriors,  statesmen,  poets,  and  especially  foimders 
of  new  religions,  are  so  now,  and  were  vastly 
more  credulous  in  ancient  times  when  natural 


S3^  Evolution  of  Religions 

sciences  and  true  philosophy  were  unknown  and 
when  belief  in  the  supernatural,  and,  we  may  add, 
the  incredibly  supernatural,  was  universal. 
Angels  and  archangels,  devils,  genii,  devas, 
witches,  hobgoblins,  and  ghosts,  in  the  popular 
belief,  used  to  literally  swarm  in  the  world,  and 
many  persons  had,  as  was  believed,  an  attendant 
angel  or  demon  through  life. 

Perhaps  the  writer  of  this  book  may  be  so 
normally,  or  it  may  be,  so  abnormally  constituted, 
that  he  cannot  believe  in  such  beings  or  in  their 
manifestations  either  in  the  past  or  present  time, 
but  if  so,  and  his  reasoning  thereabout  is  erro- 
neous, it  is  his  misfortune  and  not  his  fault,  for  he 
has  humbly  and  earnestly  sought  not  only  earthly 
light,  but  also  divine  guidance  all  his  life.  He  has 
carefully  read  and  studied  the  Bible,  every  word 
of  it,  in  all  its  books  a  number  of  times,  many  parts 
of  it,  especially  the  Gospels,  very  often,  and  has 
also  studied  carefully  many  of  the  best  works  on 
all  sides  of  the  great  questions  considered  in  these 
pages.  One,  and  it  seems  to  us  the  most  impor- 
tant of  all  the  Bible  stories  of  the  supernatural, 
may  be  true  literally,  and  we  should  like  to  believe 
it,  because  of  its  far-reaching  and  most  important 
consequences,  because  it  is  surroiinded  by  many 
circumstances  indicating  its  truth,  and  because  we 
believe  absolutely  in  Jesus  Christ  and  immortal- 
ity. We  mean  the  Resurrection  of  Jesus,  and  the 
story  of  His  life  on    earth  after   His  Crucifixion. 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       337 

He  may  not  have  been  seen  in  His  human  body 
after  His  death,  —  that  probably  remained  in  the 
tomb,  or  was  in  some  way  disposed  of  by  friends 
or  enemies,  —  but  He  may  have  been  visible  in 
His  "alter  ego,"  His  immortal  self,  in  His  spirit. 
If  so,  He  was  a  demonstration  of  immortality  in 
being  permitted  to  be  seen  by  and  converse  with 
His  disciples  after  His  death.  He  lived,  of  course, 
after  His  Crucifixion.  So  must  all  behevewho 
believe  in  a  future  life,  and  there  was  no  super- 
naturalism  in  that  fact,  but  only  in  the  fact  that 
God  permitted  His  disciples  to  see  Him,  mortal 
eyes  permitted  to  see  the  immortal,  mortals 
permitted  to  converse  with  the  immortal. 

We  know  not  where  the  soul  goes  after  the  death 
of  the  body.  It  may  go  immediately  to  God,  to  be 
with  Him  in  "  His  Holy  of  holies,"  or  to  some  other 
world  of  the  imiverse,  or  remain  for  a  season  with 
relatives  and  friends  about  its  late  earthly  home. 
Jesus  we  know  lived  somewhere  after  His  Cruci- 
fixion and  natural  death,  and  He  may  have,  and 
there  is  really  nothing  astounding  in  the  fact  that 
He  remained,  as  we  are  told  He  did,  forty  days  on 
earth  and  was  about  and  with  His  disciples. 
Certainly  some  being  or  apparition  they  saw  and 
conversed  with,  whom  they  believed  to  be  their 
late  Teacher  and  Master,  and  why  should  it  not 
be  He?  It  was,  if  so,  a  supernatural  vision, 
requiring  no  change  of  their  natural  organs  of 
sight,  possibly,  but  only  that  a  divine  illumination 


338  Evolution  of  Religions 

revealed  Jesus  to  them,  and  naturally  they  sa\\ 
Him  if  He  was  resurrected  in  flesh.  All  other 
miraculous  stories  m  the  Scriptures  are  naught 
in  importance  and  grandeur  compared  to  this 
one,  for  if  Hterally  true,  then  by  Jesus'  Resurrec- 
tion and  sojourn  of  forty  days  on  earth  thereafter, 
He  absolutely  brought  "hfe  and  immortality 
to  light."  According  to  the  Bible,  other  dead 
had  been  resurrected  bodily  before:  Samuel 
the  prophet,  by  the  witch  of  the  wilderness  of 
Endor ;  the  sons  of  the  widow  at  Zarephath  and 
the  woman  of  Shunem,  by  the  old  prophets 
Elijah  and  Elisha ;  and  even  one  man  was  brought 
to  life  by  mere  contact  with  the  dead  EHsha's 
bones.^  Jesus  Himself  and  the  Apostles  Peter 
and  Paul  are  said  to  have  brought  the  dead  to 
life,  but  these  miracles  had  no  corroborating 
history,  and  the  reanimated  subjects  like  the  dead 
saints  of  Jerusalem,  who  are  said  to  have  come  out 
of  their  tombs  after  Jesus'  Resurrection  and 
appeared  on  the  streets,  had  no  subsequent 
confirmative  history  and  were  never  seen  or  heard 
of  afterwards,  excepting  indeed  one  subsequent 
incidental  mention  of  Lazarus.  St.  Paul  says 
that  Jesus  was  the  first  man  raised  from  the  dead,^ 
and  emphasized  the  same  declaration  by  repeat- 
ing it  and  adding,  "Jesus  had  preeminence  as  the 
beginning,  the  firstborn  from  the  dead."^ 

» II  Kings,  ch.  xiii,  v.  21.  *  St.  Paul's  Acts,  ch.  xxvi,  v.  23. 

'  Colossians,  ch.  i,  v.  18. 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       339 

If  these  declarations  of  the  Apostle  be  true, 
then  all  the  other  stories  in  the  Bible  of  resurrected 
dead  are  fables,  excepting  the  Resurrection  of 
Jesus,  But  Jesus  was  seen  or  beheved  to  have 
been  seen  by  many  of  His  disciples,  some  of  whom 
long  years  afterw^ards,  in  the  Apostolic  writings 
which  are  undoubtedly  genuine,  testify  that  they 
saw  and  conversed  with  him  during  forty  days 
after  His  Resurrection,  and  then  saw  Him  go 
away  into  the  empyrean  above  them.  Among 
all  the  early  Christians,  including  all  those  who 
lived  in  and  about  Jerusalem  at  the  time,  there 
was  never  expressed  a  dissent  of  doubt  or  un- 
belief in  the  story,  although  other  differences 
early  sprang  up  about  His  acts  and  teachings. 
The  context  of  the  Gospel  narratives  and  St. 
Paul  teach  that  Jesus'  natural  body  was  never 
seen  again  by  His  disciples  after  His  burial,^  and 
if  seen  at  all,  He  was  seen  as  the  incorporeal, 
immortal,  disembodied  Jesus  in  human  form 
whom  God  permitted  His  devoted  followers  to 
see,  associate,  and  converse  with.  He  was  not 
evidently  the  same  being  of  flesh  and  blood  after 
His  Resurrection  as  before.  "  Flesh  and  blood 
cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  and 
"the  first  man,  Adam,  was  made  a  living  soul, 
the  last  Adam  (or  Jesus)  was  made  a  quicken- 
ing spirit."^ 

*  I  Corinthians,  ch.  xv. 

'  I  Corinthians,  ch.  xv,  vs.  45-50. 


340  Evolution  of  Religions 

Jesus  said  to  Mary  of  Magdala  on  the  morning 
of  His  Resurrection,  "Touch  me  not,  for  I  have 
not  yet  ascended  to  my  Father  and  your  Father, 
my  God  and  your  God!"  What  could  His  future 
ascension  have  to  do  with  her  touching  Him  if 
mortal?  He  did  not  want  her  to  be  distressed 
and  alarmed  by  attempting  to  touch  a  visible 
spirit !  On  the  same  day  He  walked  with  two  of 
His  disciples  sixty  furlongs  or  ten  miles  to  Emmaus 
and  they  held  much  converse  on  the  way,  but  knew 
Him  not  imtil  He  suddenly  vanished  as  a  spirit 
from  their  sight.*  A  natural  body  resurrected  from 
death  would  scarcely  walk  that  distance  in  a  few 
hours  after  Resurrection.  On  two  subsequent  occa- 
sions, Jesus  came  into  rooms  where  His  apostles 
were  holding  meetings  with  closed  doors,  \m- 
annoxmced  and  imseen,  until  He  spoke  to  them. 
Why  was  this,  and  why  did  St.  John  note  His  ex- 
traordinary and  mysterious  appearance,^  if  not  to 
indicate  that  Jesus'  coming  thus  was  supernatural? 
It  is  true  that  He  is  said  to  have,  on  two  occasions, 
eaten  with  His  disciples  during  the  forty  days  He 
was  on  earth  after  His  Resurrection,  and  that  the 
Apostle  Thomas  is  said  to  have  touched  the  scars 
on  His  wounded  hands  and  sides.  These  inci- 
dents seem  inconsistent  with  the  mere  spiritual 
theory  of  His  being,  subsequent  to  the  Resur- 
rection, but  they  may,  and  probably  are,  merely 
legendary  embellishments. 

*  Luke,  ch.  xxiv,  vs.  13-36. 
'  St.  John,  ch.  XX,  vs.  19-36 


Summary  of  Bible  Exegesis       341 

Of  course,  change  from  incorporeal  to  bodily- 
presence,  as  indicated  by  these  latter  stories,  if 
real,  would  be  supernatural.  We  know  Jesus 
existed,  lived  a  God -like  life,  and  died  on  the  cross 
for  man.  To  believers  in  immortality,  it  should 
seem  no  wise  unnatural  for  the  Son  of  God  as  an 
immortal  to  live  on  earth  in  His  spiritual  being 
after  mortal  death,  to  be  with  His  disciples  for  a 
time,  and  to  be  seen  by  them.  God  permitted 
Him  thus  to  demonstrate  to  them  the  eternal 
lessons  He  had  taught  them.  We  shall  doubt- 
less all  see  in  the  future  life  with  eyes  resembling 
and  counterparts  of  our  mortal  eyes.  It  mattered 
not  that  Jesus,  while  in  His  natural  life,  fed  five 
thousand  people  with  five  loaves  and  two  fishes. 
It  mattered  not  that  He  raised  the  dead  and 
healed  the  sick.  Those  miracles  proved  nothing, 
excepting  that  He  was  gifted  of  God  with  super- 
natural powers,  as  other  prophets  of  Israel  before 
Him  had  been  reputed  to  be,  and  in  fully  as  great 
degree.  Elijah  and  Elisha  had  centuries  before 
raised  the  dead  and  healed  the  sick  as  Jesus  did. 
But  in  all  those  miracles,  if  facts,  they  simply 
dealt  with  the  mortal  and  with  time;  there  was 
lacking  the  demonstration  of  immortality  and 
eternity.  The  appearance  of  Samuel's  ghost  to 
Saul  at  the  bidding  of  the  witch  of  Endor  was  a 
sort  of  demonstration,  but  it  was  inconclusive, 
and  the  story  had  no  attestation.  But  if  the 
life  and  the  ministry  of  Jesus,  as  narrated  by  the 


342  Evolution  of  Religions 

evangelists,  and  especially  His  post-Crucifixion 
life  are  true,  then  Jesus  gave  that  complete  and 
perfect  demonstration.  He  literally  "brought  life 
and  immortality  to  light. "  It  is  the  seal  to  and  the 
climax  of  all  the  Bible  teaches.  If  not  true,  and 
especially  His  Resurrection  and  after-life,  then 
the  Bible,  our  Bible,  is  no  better,  nor  any  more 
authority,  than  others  of  the  world's  bibles  now 
existing,  excepting  as  its  portrayals  of  God,  and  its 
teachings  to  humanity,  may  be  best  and  purest. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  DIVINE  EDUCATION  OF  THE  HUMAN  RACE 

DR.  BRIGGS  in  his  "  Study  of  Holy  Scripture  " 
says :  *  "  The  history  of  the  worid  is,  as  Loes- 
sing  shows,  the  divine  education  of  our  race,  and 
every  nation  has  its  share  in  that  instruction  and 
contributes  its  quota  of  experience  to  the  suc- 
cessive generations.  The  nations  of  the  modem 
world  have  all  come  into  line  with  their  inter- 
play of  forces,  making  the  problem  more  complex 
and  wonderful.  The  old  nations  of  the  Orient, 
China,  Japan,  and  India,  with  Africa  and  the 
islands  of  the  ocean,  share  in  that  education  and 
service.  The  world  is  one  in  origin,  in  training, 
in  destiny.  There  is  force  in  Renan's  remark: 
'  Jewish  history  that  would  have  the  monopoly  of 
the  miracle,  is  not  a  bit  more  extraordinary  than 
Greek  history.  If  the  supernatural  intervention 
is  necessary  to  explain  the  one,  then  supernatural 
intervention  is  also  necessary  to  explain  the 
other.'" 

And  again   Dr.   Briggs   says:  "The   primitive 

sources  of  Bible  history  are  mythologies,  poems, 

laws,  whether  inscribed,  written,  or  traditional, 

'  Dr.  Briggs'  "  Study  of  Holy  Scripture,"  p.  537. 

343 


^44  Evolution  of  Religions 

historical  documents,  and  the  use  of  the  historical 
imagination."  .  .  .  "We  may  say  with  reference 
to  them  all/  i.e.,  biblical  histories  and  writers, 
that  they  did  not  and  could  not  distinguish 
between  truth  and  fiction  in  any  of  the  older 
legends  and  historical  documents  at  their  dis- 
posal. They  could  not  separate  the  fact  from  its 
mythological,  legendary,  and  poetical  embellish- 
ments. Indeed,  they  preferred  it  as  thus  em- 
bellished, for  it  was  more  appropriate  in  this 
form  for  their  purposes  of  instruction.  Further- 
more, it  is  evident  that  the  Bible  writers  did  not 
hesitate  to  indulge  themselves  in  historical  fiction 
when  they  had  not  sufficient  information,  and  the 
lessons  they  wished  to  teach  had  yet  to  be  taught."^ 
Really,  this  criticism  of  Dr.  Briggs  may  as  well 
apply  to  every  miraculous  narrative  in  the  Old 
and  New  Testaments.  Certainly  so  to  the  miracles 
herein  specially  reviewed,  and  possibly  in  his 
mind  when  he  so  wrote.  Further  on  Dr.  Briggs 
says:^  "There  is  no  evidence  that  the  Divine 
Spirit  guided  those  historians  of  Holy  Scriptures 
in  their  historic  investigations,  so  as  to  keep  them 
from  historical  errors.  The  Divine  Spirit  guided 
them  in  their  religious  instructions,  in  the  lessons 
they  taught  from  history.  But  there  is  no 
evidence  of  any  other  guidance.     The  evidence  is 

*  Dr.  Briggs'  "  Study  of  Holy  Scripture,"  p.  555. 
»  Ibid.  p.  565. 
'  Ibid.  p.  566. 


Divine  Education  of  Human  Race     345 

all  against  such  guidance  as  prevented  them  from 
making  historic  errors.  They  certainly  did  record 
errors."  He  enumerates  many  such.  If  Dr. 
Briggs  is  right,  here  is  the  whole  question  of  Bible 
inspiration  in  a  nutshell.  We  believe  with  him 
that  the  Holy  Spirit  guided  the  writers  of  the 
biblical  books  in  their  religious  instructions 
and  in  the  lessons  they  taught  from  history. 
But  there  is  really  no  evidence  of  any  other 
guidance.  If  not,  then  in  all  matters  of  his- 
torical narratives  which  include  everything  belong- 
ing to  the  province  of  history,  biography,  and 
miracles,  as  well  as  any  other  alleged  facts,  there 
is  no  presumption  or  probability  of  inspired 
guidance,  and  the  authenticity  of  all  such  matters, 
including  the  statements  of  miracles,  must  depend 
upon  the  probabilities  and  the  facts  in  each 
case. 

Upon  this  theory,  we  have  been  guided  in  the 
discussion  of  particular  miracles  and  particular 
Mosaic  customs  and  ordinances.  Some  of  those 
customs  and  ordinances  are  so  contrary  to  the 
moral  attributes  of  Deity  that  they  cannot  have 
been  sanctioned  or  enjoined  by  Him,  even  accord- 
ing to  the  ideas  of  Dr.  Briggs  that  they  were 
gradual  developments  in  God's  training  of  the 
Israelites.  Under  such  theory  he  claims  that  God 
indorsed  the  Mosaic  laws  allowing  slavery,  polyg- 
amy, and  divorces;  commends  the  purpose  of 
Abraham   to   sacrifice   his   son    Isaac;   that   He 


346  Evolution  of  Religions 

accepted  the  sacrifice  of  Jephthah's  daughter; 
that  "the  offering  up  of  children  and  of  domestic 
animals  and  grains  (as  sacrifices)  was  all  a  pre- 
paratory discipline  for  the  religion  of  Christ," 
and  that  the  theophanic  angel  commended  the 
inhospitable  Jael  for  her  brutal  assassination  of 
Sisera.  He  excuses  such  errors  in  moral  precepts 
because  they  were,  as  he  says,  necessary  in  order 
to  educate  Israel  for  a  nobler  time  when  Israel, 
as  well  as  the  Christian  Church,  would  abhor 
slavery  and  polygamy  and  those  other  outrages 
as  sins  and  crimes. 

According  to  such  argument  and  by  analogy, 
all  the  crimes  and  wickedness  which  have  occurred 
in  all  the  nations  and  ages  of  the  world  might  be 
justified  as  part  of  God's  education  of  the  human 
race,  for  the  advent  of  Christianity.  Dr.  Briggs' 
ideas  in  these  matters  illustrate  what  absurd 
and  inconsistent  positions  he  has  supposed  him- 
self compelled  to  take  in  his  advocacy  of  the 
theophanic  control  and  guidance  of  Abraham  and 
Moses  and  other  Bible  characters,  and  of  the 
Mosaic  institutions,  according  to  the  strict  letter 
of  the  Torah,  thus  singularly  liberal  and  pro- 
gressive in  most  of  his  Scriptural  ideas  and 
interpretations,  and  reactionary  and  strictly  ortho- 
dox in  others,  which  are  entirely  indefensible,  but 
must  be  advocated  and  indorsed  to  sustain  his 
theophanic  and  Christophanic  theories. 

Some  of  the  miracles  of  the  Bible  are  of  such 


Divine  Education  of  Human  Race     347 

character  and  so  trivial  in  purpose  when  con- 
sidered in  the  Hght  of  the  divine  attributes  as  to 
seem  clearly  unworthy  of  divine  intervention  and 
so  merit  little  discussion  as  to  authenticity. 
Therefore  inspiration  cannot  be  predicated,  per  se, 
of  miracles  as  historical  incidents.  If  challenged 
or  doubted,  —  and  any  honest  man  has  a  right  to 
doubt,  — they  should  be  proven,  and  the  claim  of 
biblical  inspiration  alone  cannot  be  assumed  as 
sufficient  proof,  for  those  who  require  evidence 
upon  which  to  base  their  beliefs.  Again  we 
repeat  if,  according  to  Dr.  Briggs,  — and  we  fully 
indorse  his  position  on  this  question,  — there  was 
no  inspiration  or  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  to 
biblical  writers  originally,  or,  as  compilers  of 
more  ancient  manuscripts  into  our  present  bibli- 
cal books,  excepting  in  their  religious  instructions 
and  moral  lessons  from  history,  then  their  narra- 
tives of  supernatural  occurrences,  as  historical 
facts,  are  of  no  more  force  and  have  no  more 
sanction  of  the  Holy  Spirit  than  their  narratives 
of  other  historical  events,  and  are  no  more  obliga- 
tory upon  our  belief,  really  much  less  so,  as 
supernatural  occurrences  naturally  require  much 
greater  proof  than  ordinary  historic  events. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

MISCELLANEOUS     CONCLUSIONS 

THIS  is  the  age  of  great  evolutions  in  religious 
belief.  The  idea  of  sacrificial  worship  of  God 
by  the  sacrifice  of  animals  as  pleasing  or  accept- 
able to  Him  has  been  utterly  discarded  from  all 
the  great  religions,  and  the  theory  of  atonement 
for  sins,  through  such  sacrifices,  is  no  longer 
held  by  any  of  them,  only  orthodox  Christianity 
believing  even  in  the  atonement  by  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  a  great  advance  upon  the  worships  of  past 
ages.  Men  of  all  religions  are  earnestly  testing  all 
the  foimdations  of  their  faith.  Many  of  the 
theories  of  a  few  centuries  ago  are  becoming 
antiquated;  the  older  Christian  catechisms  are 
rejected,  and  the  various  sects  are  contending  for 
new  statements  of  doctrines.  This  religious  im- 
rest  not  only  exists  in  the  Christian  world,  but 
is  permeating  other  faiths,  —  Parsees,  Jews,  Brah- 
mans.  Buddhists,  Confucianists,  and  Mohammed- 
ans. Out  of  this  agitation,  doubtless,  great  good 
will  eventually  result.  Each  of  these  religionists 
believes  its  sacred  books  alone  to  be  the 
word  of  God,  excepting  the  Christians,  Moham- 
medans, and  Mormons  who  also  believe  in  the 

348 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        349 

Bible  of  Jews  and  Christians  as  well  as  in  their 
own  special  holy  books.  But  each  is  becoming 
better  acquainted  than  ever  before  with  the 
other  faiths,  and  the  elements  of  a  common 
brotherly  regard  are  being  evolved  between  all. 
The  Mohammedan  believes  as  sincerely  in 
Moses  and  the  prophets  and  in  Jesus  Christ,  though 
differing  in  some  immaterial  doctrines,  as  Chris- 
tians do,  and  the  Mormons  whilst  venerating  their 
own  founder  and  regarding  the  Book  of  Mormon 
as  a  revelation  from  God,  subsequent  to  all 
others,  yet  profess,  as  firmly  as  Christians,  to 
believe  in  the  Jewish  and  Christian  Scriptures. 

So  there  is  for  Jews,  Christians,  Mohammedans, 
and  Mormons,  common  grounds  of  belief  which 
should  bring  them  nearer  together  in  the  essentials 
of  religion,  viz.,  one  God,  devotion  to  His  service, 
and  a  future  life  of  happiness  eventually  for  all, 
and  in  Jesus  Christ,  divinely  sent,  and  inspired 
as  a  man  only,  if  not  as  a  manifestation  or  incarna- 
tion of  Deity.  The  Parsee  or  Zoroastrian,  Buddh- 
ist and  Confucianist,  though  knowing  little  imtil 
recent  years,  of  Moses  and  the  prophets  or  of  Jesus, 
agree  with  all  the  other  faiths  in  supreme  belief  in 
God  and  a  future  life.  These  common  groimds  of 
belief  should  be  sufficient  to  unite  and  harmonize 
all  these  religionists,  so  that,  when  opportunities 
occur,  they  could  worship  in  the  same  temples, 
under  the  benign  creed  of  the  old  Jewish  prophet 
Micah,  "All  that  is  required  of  thee,  oh  man,  is  to 


350  Evolution  of  Religions 

do  justly  —  to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God."  So  having  in  "essentials,  unity, 
in  non-essentials,  liberty,  and  in  all  things  char- 
ity," and  so  hve  and  work  together  in  common 
brotherhood.  The  Hindoostanee  Parsee,  proud 
of  the  remote  antiquity  of  his  faith,  the  Buddhist 
and  the  Moslem  all  worshiping  the  One,  Only 
God,  each  rejecting  all  sacrificial  services  as  well 
as  the  Trinity  and  vicarious  atonement  of  Jesus 
Christ,  must  have  some  charity  in  worshiping 
with  their  orthodox  Christian  brethren,  but  the 
great  essentials  of  their  creeds  are  the  same,  even 
if  mystically  diverse. 

Liberal  students  of  each  of  the  great  religions 
of  the  world  have  been  for  a  number  of  years 
past,  as  they  had  not  been  before,  investigating 
the  other  religions  and  their  sacred  books,  and  the 
result  is  that  they  are  beginning  to  see  and  be- 
lieve that  however  much  they  may  differ  in  mat- 
ters of  history,  miracles,  forms,  rites  of  worship; 
yet  all  those  sacred  books  form  in  common  the 
basis  of  the  same  moral  code  of  God's  revelations 
to  mankind  and  were  undoubtedly  given  by  Him 
in  their  various  forms,  as  instructions  in  the  educa- 
tion of  the  human  race  and  adapted  to  the  differ- 
ent ages,  and  the  intellectual  and  moral  conditions 
of  the  people  when  those  books  were  written. 
The  great  Congress  of  Religions  at  the  World's  Fair 
in  Chicago  in  1893,  in  which  all  the  different  re- 
ligions of  the  world  were  represented,  and  their 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        351 

tenets  were  presented  and  discussed  by  the  ablest 
priests  and  scholars  of  each  faith,  accomplished 
a  great  work  in  the  way  of  obliterating  differences 
and  antagonisms,  and  in  unifying  and  harmonizing 
the  various  religious  systems. 

Good  work  in  the  same  direction  was  probably 
done  at  the  great  Paris  World's  Exposition  of  1900, 
although  we  have  not  seen  any  extended  report  of 
the  same,  and  therefore  cannot  speak  advisedly 
about  it.  Great  good  will  undoubtedly  result 
not  only  to  the  cause  of  universal  religion,  but 
also  to  human  progress  and  national  and  race 
amenities  generally  from  such  great  cosmopolitan 
religious  conferences.  The  old-time  belief  in 
favoritism  by  Deity  of  the  Hebrew  or  of  any  other 
particular  race  or  nation,  is  rapidly  disappearing. 
Consequently  a  broader  humanitarianism,  sym- 
pathy, and  catholicity  of  opinions,  than  ever  be- 
fore manifested,  are  spreading  over  the  world. 
The  intense  selfish  exclusiveness  and  bigotry  of  the 
past  ages,  when 

"Lands,  intersected  by  a  narrow  firth, 
Abhorred  each  other.     Mountains  interposed, 
Made  enemies  of  nations,  which  had  else, 
Like  kindred  drops,  been  mingled  into  one," 

are  fast  disappearing  with  the  now  frequent  inter- 
mingling of  people  of  all  races,  religions,  and  condi- 
tions of  life  in  business,  commerce,  and  travel,  and 
the  more  general  diffusion  of  knowledge.     Men 


35^  Evolution  of  Religions 

are  everywhere  beginning  to  believe  in  the  Heav- 
enly Father  as  the  one  God  of  all,  "who  is 
fotind  of  all  who  love  and  seek  Him."  The  gen- 
eral dissemination  and  recognition  of  this  great 
truth  are  rapidly  advancing  the  sentiment  of  uni- 
versal brotherhood  among  men.  This  sentiment 
of  fraternity,  toleration,  and  sympathy,  is  one  of 
the  great  evolutions  of  religious  thought  and 
feeling,  developing  out  of  the  race  feelings,  intol- 
erance, and  bigotry  of  the  past. 

There  is  much  purity,  beauty,  and  truth,  as  we 
have  seen,  in  all  the  world's  sacred  books.  The 
intelligent  and  liberal-minded  of  all  faiths, 
especially  many  of  our  great  Christian  scholars, 
and  those  who  have  become  cosmopolitan  by 
travel  in  foreign  lands,  are  gradually  coming  to 
recognize  the  truths  in  all  religions  as  emana- 
tions from  the  same  divine  source.  Broad-gauged 
Christians  feel  that  the  humble  and  sincere  de- 
votees of  all  other  faiths  are  brethren  with  them 
in  the  imiversal  fellowship  of  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
love  of  God,  and  while  seeking,  as  they  may  have 
opportunity,  to  lead  them  into  the  higher  life  of 
Christianity,  yet  respect  their  convictions  and 
affiliate  with  them. 

It  will  bear  frequent  repetition  that  "God  is 
everywhere  and  in  everything."  He  is  our  com- 
mon Father.  In  Him,  we  of  all  creeds  alike,  live, 
move,  and  have  our  beings.  He  loves  and  cares 
for  all  alike.     These  truths  in  the  evolutions  of 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        353 

human  progress  and  development,  will,  we  believe, 
soon  have  universal,  practical,  as  well  as  theo- 
retical recognition, 

God  does  not  let  the  imiverse  run  itself.  His 
empire  is  a  reign  of  imiversal,  changeless,  eternal, 
moral,  and  physical  laws.  But  though  govern- 
ing all  things  by  imiform  and  unchangeable 
system.  He  ever  is,  ever  was,  and  ever  must  be 
at  the  helm  of  His  empire,  and  all  things  are 
ultimately  as  He  wills.  How  this  may  be  we 
know  not,  but  in  the  nature  of  His  attributes  and 
perfections,  it  must  be  so.  If  anything  in  the 
entire  realms  of  matter,  or  of  mind,  or  life,  tem- 
poral or  eternal,  happens  contrary  to  His  will, 
be  it  the  result  of  destiny,  work  of  evil  spirits,  or 
free  agency  of  man,  the  power  that  so  acts  and 
accomplishes  results  contrary  to  God's  will,  is 
necessarily  greater  than  God  and  independent  of 
Him,  an  imperium  in  imperio.  Were  it  so  the 
universe  would  be  like  a  ship  at  sea  without  com- 
pass or  pilot,  and  God's  children  could  not  safely 
rest  in  the  consciousness  of  His  infinite  wisdom  and 
love,  if  not  accompanied  by  His  absolute  control 
of  all  things  in  His  infinite  knowledge  and  power. 
Here  in  this  life  we  cannot  understand  many 
things;  indeed,  with  all  our  knowledge  we  know 
but  little  of  God's  ways.  The  Bible  teaches 
generally  the  doctrine  of  man's  free  agency,  but 
in  many  pages  the  contrary,  as  in  some  of  the 
Prophets,  in  Ecclesiastes,  and  in  Romans  ix,  and 


354  Evolution  of  Religions 

certainly  that  it  is  limited  always  by  training, 
heredity,  and  environments.  Our  passions,  appe- 
tites, and  desires  are  given  us  for  beneficent 
purposes,  but  are  more  or  less  dominated  by 
hereditary  influences  as  well  as  by  surroimding 
conditions. 

If  all  are  "conceived  in  sin  and  bom  in 
iniquity,"  then  none  are  free  agents  from  birth, 
but  are  dominated  by  overmastering  influences 
for  evil.  These  conditions  and  influences  certainly 
should  be  taken  into  account  in  the  question  of 
man's  moral  responsibility,  for  his  actions  in 
connection  with  influences  to  the  contrary,  and 
the  light  and  knowledge  he  may  possess.  Many 
criminals  are  doubtless  moral  degenerates  — 
some  from  childhood  —  and  are  morally  irre- 
sponsible. For  all  violations  of  merely  natural 
laws,  nature  provides  certain  pimishment  in 
disease  and  pain  and  premature  death.  For 
violations  of  moral  laws,  man  is  not  competent 
to  be  the  final  judge.  Only  God  who  knows  all 
the  intents  and  purposes  of  the  heart  and  all 
matters  and  questions  affecting  moral  respon- 
sibility can  be  the  exact  judge.  The  punishment 
may  be,  and  doubtless  mostly  is,  in  this  life,  or  it 
may  extend  into  the  future  life,  but  as  the  moral 
responsibility  can  only  be  that  of  finite  man,  for 
finite  acts,  so  the  punishment  in  equity  can  only 
be  finite  and  limited.  "  Shall  not  the  judge  of  all 
the  earth  do  right?"    Of  course  nothing  in  the 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        355 

universe  can  happen  or  result  contrary  to  God's 
will,  but  ordinarily  He,  as  the  Bible  teaches,  in 
His  wise  economy,  permits  men  to  act  on  their 
own  responsibility,  overruling,  however,  and  ulti- 
mately controlling  all  things  and  all  acts  of  men 
in  His  wisdom  as  He  sees  best  in  His  infinite  plans. 
If  this  theory  —  and  it  certainly  seems  to  be  the 
Bible  theory — be  true,  then  eternal  punishment  is 
untrue.  Here  we  live  largely  under  limitations, 
necessities,  and  environments.  What  we  do,  God 
foreknew,  and  so  it  was  and  is  written.  The 
mystery  of  our  acts,  good  and  bad,  squared  with 
God's  fore-knowledge  of  all  things  and  the  cer- 
tainty that  nothing  in  the  universe  can  be  done  or 
happen  contrary  to  God's  will  and  purposes,  is 
impenetrable,  and  no  human  intellect  can  solve 
the  enigma.  St.  Paul  wrestles  with  it,'  and  as- 
serts the  doctrine  that  all  men  are  clay  in  the  great 
Potter's  hands,  and  that  our  lives  are  as  He  wills. 
If  so,  the  enigma  is  solved,  but  elsewhere  in  His 
Epistles,  St.  Paul  seems  to  teach  a  different 
theory.  There  are,  however,  mysteries  which 
the  Bible  does  not  solve,  and  which  never  have 
been  solved,  and  of  which  the  solution  will  be 
made  known,  if  at  all,  doubtless  only  in  the 
future  life.  AVhy  and  how  God  exists;  how  the 
universe  came  into  existence  from  the  voiceless 
void  of  abysmal  night ;  from  whence  or  how  came 
the  atoms,  protoplasmic  germs,   and  evolutions 

»  Romans,  ch.  ix. 


356  Evolution  of  Religions 

thereof  from  which  all  things  are ;  why  and  how 
the  human  race  exists  and  is  constituted  as  it  is ; 
why  evil  and  sin  abound;  why  disease  and  suf- 
fering and  death  are;  what  the  purpose  of  this 
great  drama  of  life  is ;  how  it  comports  with  God's 
attributes ;  —  all  these  things  are  incomprehensible 
mysteries,  only  made  more  so  by  the  delusions  of 
orthodox  tenets. 

All  human  life  is  a  chaos  of  vanity,  as  says  the 
Book  of  Ecclesiastes,  unless  in  all  its  phases  of 
light  and  darkness,  good  and  evil,  happiness  and 
misery,  it  is  en  rapport  with  God's  universal  econ- 
omy, and  is  so  that  all  life's  seeming  incongruities 
will  be  adjusted,  equalized,  and  harmonized  in 
the  eternal  hereafter  by  infinite  balances  and  com- 
pensations. So  that  sin,  pain,  and  evil  here  will 
ultimately  contribute  to  work  out  and  evolve  uni- 
versal good  and  universal  happiness.  Such  must 
be,  it  would  seem,  the  ultimate  result,  if  there  be 
a  purpose  —  and  there  surely  is  —  in  all  the  great 
drama  of  human  life.  It  is  apparently  the  only 
theory  upon  which  all  the  mysteries  of  life  can 
be  imderstood,  and  the  existence  of  sin  and  evil  be 
harmonized  in  consistency  with  the  attributes  of 
God.  Inspired  with  such  faith  and  hope,  we 
can  bow  our  heads  in  lowly  reverence  and  sub- 
mission to  His  will,  and  amidst  all  the  changes 
and  vicissitudes,  the  troubles  and  sorrows  of  life, 
as  well  as  in  its  joys,  humbly  say,  "Thy  will  be 
done."     No  other  theory  than  this,  even  though 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        357 

it  is  the  antithesis  of  the  horrible  tenets  of 
orthodoxy,  of  eternal  happiness  for  the  millions 
and  eternal  hell  for  the  billions  of  our  race, 
it  seems  to  us,  can  harmonize  with  all  the  vary- 
ing conditions  of  men  under  God's  moral  gov- 
ernment and  reconcile  us  to  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  life. 

When  we  accept  this  theory,  we  should  be  filled 
with  complete  and  submissive  trust  in  God  and 
animated  to  use  all  our  powers  and  faculties  to 
make  ourselves  and  our  fellow-men  happy.  We 
are  assured  that  God  is  the  one  Universal  Father 
and  cares  for  all  His  children.  Hence  while 
sorrows  and  punishments  may  be  meted  out  to  us 
for  sins  and  for  failures  to  use  as  best  we  could  our 
talents  and  opportunities,  yet  those  penalties  will 
be  for  our  reformation,  and  will  result  and  end  in 
our  ultimate  and  eternal  welfare. 

This  life  and  the  future  are  and  can  be  but  one. 
They  are  only  changes  of  conditions  and  environ- 
ments. The  demands  of  infinite  justice,  which 
bigotry  has  for  ages  dinned  into  our  ears  with 
threats  of  its  awful,  merciless,  and  eternal  hell, 
will  be  met  and  harmonized  in  that  future  life 
by  infinite  adjustments,  and  finally  canceled  by 
the  omnipotence  and  fullness  of  infinite  love. 
Many  things  which  seem  sinful  here  from  want 
of  knowledge  of  the  motives  and  forces  which 
actuate  and  even  compel  men  to  do  apparently 
wrong,  will  be  seen  in  the  light  of  eternity  to  have 


35^        Evolution   of    Religions 

been  right,  and  actions  which  perhaps  may  have 
been  heralded  as  grand  and  good,  will  appear 
there  in  their  naked  deformity  of  purpose  as 
wicked  and  desperately  evil.  But  for  all  the  good 
and  evil  of  our  earthly  lives  we  believe  there  will 
be  hereafter  merciful  judgments  and  infinite  com- 
pensations, with  such  final  adjustments  and 
limited  finite  punishments  for  our  sins,  if  not  fully 
meted  out  to  us  here,  as  justice  and  mercy  may 
require. 

Some  teach  that  beyond  the  confines  of  time 
nearly  everything  of  earth  and  of  our  earthly 
lives  are  forgotten  or  banished  from  our  memories 
in  Paradise,  and  that  only  the  wicked  will  re- 
member in  perdition.  That  only  the  singing  of 
hymns  and  waving  of  palm  branches  amid  the 
ecstatic  joys  of  the  celestial  home  will  occupy  the 
time  and  thought  of  the  redeemed.  That  there 
will  be  no  identity  of  self,  no  knowledge  of  rela- 
tives and  friends  on  earth,  no  memories  of  the 
past,  no  continuance  and  everlasting  enjoyment 
of  our  earthly  treasures  of  thoughts  and  know- 
ledge, of  affections  and  hopes.  If  so,  then  indeed 
is  future  life  a  delusion,  a  chimera.  If  in  the 
future  life,  even  in  heaven,  we  shall  all  drink  of 
Lethe's  cup  and  remember  nothing  of  life  on 
earth,  of  parents,  wife,  and  children,  of  love's 
young  dream  and  ecstasies,  of  the  old  home 
Elysium,  aye,  of  all  earth's  good  and  ills,  and  only 
exist  in  perpetual  idleness  and  sing  monotonous 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        359 

songs  which  inspire  no  memories  and  messages  of 
the  past,  then  is  death  to  all  intents  and  purposes 
annihilation  or  oblivion,  and  there  might  as  well 
be  a  new  creation  of  soul,  as  a  continuance  of  the 
earth-bom  one,  when  all  of  its  life,  love,  and  mem- 
ories past,  is  forgotten.  Then  immortality,  if 
such  immortality  can  be  conceived,  would  be  only 
a  delusion,  merely  a  theosophic  metempsychosis, 
or  metamorphosis,  worse  than  Buddha's  eternal 
round  of  unconscious  spiritual  existence,  ia  animal 
or  reptilian  forms  before  Nir\'ana  is  attained. 

No!  We  believe  such  theories  are  false!  Sotil 
sleeping,  in  mental  paralysis,  or  oblivion,  return- 
ing centuries,  or  it  may  be  millions  of  years  after 
death  to  gather  up  the  atoms  of  the  dust  of  our 
decayed  bodies,  from  land  and  oceans,  wherever 
winds  and  waves  and  endless  changes  have  carried 
them,  and  thus  rehabiHtate  our  old  decayed  or- 
ganisms, is  another  ancient  delusion  bom  of  ig- 
norance and  superstition  and  akin  to  the  belief 
of  forge tfulness  after  mortal  death,  of  everything 
we  knew  on  earth.  Blessed  be  Yahweh  of  old, 
the  great  and  good  God,  in  the  higher  and  grander 
faith  which  is  now  beginning  to  illuminate  the 
world  as  the  mission  and  teachings  of  Jesus  are 
better  understood;  death  of  the  mortal  body  is 
merely  the  resurrection  of  the  soul,  the  "alter 
ego,"  the  "eternal  life,"  bom  with  us  and  devel- 
oping in  the  sunshine  of  infinite  love,  in  our  finite 
mortality. 


360  Evolution  of  Religions 

So  the  lessons  of  Jesus  teach.  So  the  "Great 
Apostle"  St.  Paul  teaches.^  So  all  the  analogies 
of  nature  teach,  and  above  all  our  spirits,  hopes, 
and  aspirations  of  immortaHty  teach.  They  are 
hopes  and  aspirations  which  God  Himself  has 
endowed  all  human  beings  with,  and  which  in  His 
truth,  He  cannot,  therefore,  —  we  say  it  rever- 
ently, —  permit  to  be  in  vain.  God  is  eternally 
true.  To  endow  us  with  such  glorious  hopes  and 
permit  them  to  end  in  nothingness,  would  be  a 
delusion  and  mockery  which  God  cannot  do  or 
permit.  Immortality  is  true  as  God  is  true.  We 
are,  as  Jesus  Christ  was,  all  born  of  God's  eternal 
essence,  and  as  He,  the  Son  of  God,  lives,  we  shall 
all  live,  and  sooner  or  later  "all  know  even  as  we 
are  known  by  Him"  forever.  This,  under  all  the 
teachings  of  all  religions,  of  dark  ignorance  and 
superstition  of  the  past,  as  well  as  of  light  and 
knowledge  of  our  day,  is  the  imiversal  deathless 
hope  and  faith,  of  all  peoples  and  all  religions, 
God-given  and  eternal.  It  is  as  old  as  when  the 
morning  stars  sang  together  at  creation's  dawn 
for  all  the  children  of  the  Highest,  including  the 
new  pair  in  Eden,  and  it  is  the  deathless  hope  of 
all  their  posterity. 

Therefore,  we  believe  resurrection  and  the 
future  life  will  be  for  each  and  all  of  human  kind, 
as  Jesus  left  the  tomb  and  lived  not  in  flesh,  but 
in  the  spirit  life  and  image  of  God.     Not  in  our 

•  I  Corinthians,  ch.  xv. 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        361 

worn-out  and  earthly  bodies.  "  Flesh  and  blood 
cannot  inherit  the  kingdom  of  God."  In  that 
rejuvenated  and  glorious  Kfe  and  new  and  ever 
happy  home,  we  shall  all,  as  His  children,  see  and 
know  God,  face  to  face.  There,  we  believe  with- 
out a  doubt,  all  the  human  family,  sooner  or  later, 
and  not  long  perhaps  after  probations,  —  for 
some  longer  or  shorter,  —  as  justice  in  mercy 
may  require,  seeking  pardon  each  for  all  the 
ignorant  erring  past,  in  the  clear  light  of  eternity, 
and  each  forever  eschewing  sins  and  follies,  may 
and  will  repent  if  never  before,  and  will  be  for- 
given there,  as  all  may  be  here.  There  will  be 
no  repetition  of  punishment.  Whatever  natural, 
physical,  or  moral  penalties  for  transgressions  of 
divine  laws  have  been  suffered  here,  —  and  most 
we  think  are  punished  sufficiently  here,  —  will  not 
be  repeated  in  the  future.  It  would  be  unjust, 
adding  vindictive  and  accumulative  penalties 
to  expiations  already  made,  and,  notwithstand- 
ing the  tenets  of  orthodoxy,  contrary  to  the 
eternal  principles  of  equity.  If  we  shall  live  and 
know  and  remember  there  as  here,  even  the  "chief 
of  sinners"  can  repent  in  the  future  life  as  well  as 
in  this,  and  no  logical  reason  can  be  given  by 
bigotry,  why  not,  and  why  pardon  may  not  be 
extended  there. 

God  only  knows  our  environments,  mental, 
moral,  and  physical  conditions,  infirmities,  and 
temptations.    Very  much  that  is  deemed  sin  is  not 


362  Evolution  of  Religions 

sin,  but  is  only  the  result  of  destiny,  or  rather  of 
misfortune,  heredity,  and  overmastering  influences 
which  destroy  our  freedom  of  will  and  clearness 
of  judgment  and  moral  perception,  and  thus 
render  us  moral  weaklings.  Very  many  criminals 
are  doubtless  quasi-insane  and  unaccoimtable 
morally,  and  should  be  restrained  and  not  con- 
signed to  prisons,  or  the  gallows.  Tens  of  thou- 
sands, yes  millions,  of  the  best  men  and  women  of 
earth,  have  gone  to  the  darkness  of  dungeons, 
and  perished  on  the  gallows,  or  in  flames,  for  mere 
beliefs,  for  imaginary  sins  and  crimes,  for  deeds 
and  words  for  which  they  ought  to  have  had  the 
approbation  of  their  enemies  and  persecutors, 
instead  of  punishment. 

There  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  any  past  or  future 
with  God.  All  is  present,  eternity,  now.  Man's 
work  and  life  here  is  all  a  part  of  his  eternity,  and 
in  the  same  continuing  plane  of  education  and 
action.  It  is  a  continuous  life,  and  there  is  no 
changing  or  reversing  it,  no  hiatus  in  God's  plans. 
Our  work  here  is  as  much  for  eternity  as  the  work 
and  education  of  the  future  life  will  be.  God  is 
always  educating  and  training  us.  We  are  all 
in  His  school,  and  we  live  here  and  are  trained  and 
governed  under  the  same  laws  and  principles  as 
we  shall  work  and  live  imder  forever.  This 
ought  to  be,  and  it  seems  to  us  must  be,  the 
universal  religion,  and  none  other  or  contrary 
can  be  true.     God  has  not  fixed  any  arbitrary 


Miscellaneous  Conclusions        363 

time  for  limiting  man's  eternal  weal  or  woe. 
Such  limitations  have  been  laid  down  and  declared 
for  Him,  by  pimy,  presumptuous  men,  as  Moses 
and  others  of  the  prophets  did,  when  they  an- 
noimced,  imder  the  bold  caption  of  "Thus  saith 
the  Lord,"  sundry  laws,  ordinances,  and  reHgious 
rites,  which  He  never  enjoined  or  sanctioned. 
Some  of  these  have  been  specifically  noted  and 
commented  upon  in  these  pages,  and  we  stand 
upon  the  record  made.  God  evidently  created 
all  people  for  His  glory  and  their  good,  and  for 
His  glory  and  our  good  in  His  infinite  plans 
we  shall,  and  must,  eternally  live. 

There  are  no  blanks  or  failures  in  God's  plans, 
no  misfits.  One  single  soul,  eternally  lost,  ruined, 
damned,  records  an  infinite  failure  in  God's 
economy.  It  cannot  be!  There  can  be  no  such 
failure,  no  such  record  in  the  eternal  years  of 
God.  We  may  go  astray.  We  may  for  a  time 
violate  His  laws,  permissively,  as  far  as  man  can, 
but  He  will  evolve  good  out  of  the  evil.  We  can 
never  get  outside  of  His  care  and  mercy.  He  is 
never  hardened  against  us.  Such  teachings  are 
false.  God  does  not  hate,  but  only  pities  us  in  our 
follies  and  our  sins.  We  can  always  return  from 
the  wilderness  of  sin  and  folly  to  His  fold,  nay, 
He  will  surely  finally  bring  us  there.  Repentance 
now  and  forever,  here  and  in  the  future  life  as 
well,  will  always  gain  His  pardon.  He  loves  His 
children  evermore.     We  believe  all  the  religions 


364        Evolution   of   Religions 

of  to-day,  with  all  that  is  good  and  true  in  their 
teachings,  will  ultimately  culminate  in  this  com- 
ing imiversal  faith ;  in  the  fruition  of  infinite,  all- 
embracing  mercy  and  redemption.  Such  is  to 
be,  we  believe,  the  evolution  of  all  religions,  the 
crowning  glory  of  all  the  divine  training  and 
education  of  mankind,  throughout  all  the  ages. 
"  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest.  Peace  on  earth 
and  good  will  to  all  men,"  shall  become  a  reality. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

CONCLUSION 

IN  summing  up  and  concluding,  it  may  be  asked 
what  of  all  these  criticisms  of  the  Bible?  If 
these  criticisms  are  sound  and  just,  must  there  be 
a  new  Bible  written,  from  which  shall  be  elimi- 
nated whatever  errors,  or  doubtful  legends,  or 
myths,  there  may  be  in  the  present  one,  and  which 
shall  be  abreast  in  all  things  with  the  knowledge 
of  the  age,  in  all  the  fields  of  science  and  literature, 
in  geology,  astronomy,  chronology,  ancient  history, 
civil  government,  and  religious  thought?  Or 
shall  we,  adding  in  some  things,  and  expurgating 
in  others,  remodel  our  Bible  and  make  a  new 
canon  of  its  books,  in  order  to  satisfy  modem 
criticism,  by  thus  emasculating  it  and  removing 
all  questionable  features?  By  no  means!  It 
would  not  then  be  the  Bible  of  our  fathers,  nor 
of  our  childhood.  Let  the  Bible  remain  ever  as 
it  is.  Even  the  old  King  James  version  is  better, 
with  all  its  petty  errors,  more  impressive,  more 
beautiful  and  attractive  in  expression  and  diction, 
than  the  late  revised  edition.  Our  old  Bible,  the 
great  landmark  of  Jews,  Christians,  and  Moham- 
medans,  is  the  best  book  on  earth.     Emphati- 

365 


366  Evolution    of   Religions 

cally  we  affirm  and  believe  that  no  new  Bible  can 
ever  be  written  which  can  compare  favorably 
with,  or  that  will  ever  supplant  or  supply  the 
place  of,  our  dear  old  Bible,  even  with  its  many 
errors.  None  that  will  ever  supersede  the  old 
one.  Its  place  in  history  and  the  realm  of  litera- 
ture is  fixed  and  inimitable.  One  half  of  the 
history  and  literature  of  the  world  in  the  past 
eighteen  hundred  years  is  inseparably  boimd 
up  in  its  teachings,  or  warrings  of  the  nations 
of  Europe  over  its  doctrines,  and  the  missionary 
work  of  the  past  century  has  made  it  a  house- 
hold book  in  nearly  all  the  world. 

It  will  ever  remain  the  great  Sacred  Book  of 
earth,  immeasurably  the  greatest,  the  pillar  of 
light,  like  that  which  led  ancient  Israel  in  the 
desert  nights,  for  all  human  beings  on  their  way 
to  eternity.  Its  errors  of  history,  its  legends  of 
miracles,  are  of  little  moment,  merely  wayside 
notes  of  the  civilizations,  religious  ideals  and 
superstitions  of  the  centuries  through  which  it 
has  come  down  to  us.  Its  divine  moral  teachings 
illuminating  all  its  pages  are  eternal.  We  can 
know  no  more  of  God  than  it  tells  us,  and  its 
ethics  are  changeless.  It  must  ever  remain  the 
supremely  Sacred  Book  of  the  world.  Its  the- 
ology and  its  ethics  can  never  be  changed  or 
improved  upon.  Hence  any  new  purported  reve- 
lation from  God,  if  any  should  ever  be  written, 
would  be  an  imposture.     New  ethics  and  a  new 


Conclusion  367 

theology  would  be  false.  Variations  of  our 
Bible  teachings,  Hke  the  Koran  and  Book  of 
Mormon,  could  only  be  plagiarisms  of  its  morals 
and  literary  beauties,  and  new  miracles  could 
only  be  false.  Our  old  Bible's  teaching  of  an 
ever  living,  omnipotent,  omniscient,  and  omni- 
present God,  the  all  wise,  infinitely  merciful  and 
imiversal  Father  of  all  human  beings,  of  all  races 
and  creeds,  can  never  be  improved  upon.  No 
man  can  ever  write  any  grander,  holier  book. 
The  histories  of  the  most  ancient  nations  and 
peoples,  the  lives  and  family  circles  of  the  old 
nomadic  patriarchs  of  Arabia  and  Canaan,  the 
customs  and  manners  of  those  far  remote  ages, 
cannot  be  again  so  elegantly  and  truthfully 
reproduced.  The  wonderful  legendary  miracles 
and  historic  poems  of  the  Bible  most  faithfully 
portray  ancient  currents  of  thought,  ancient 
beliefs,  superstitions,  and  forms  of  worship, 
presenting  a  mirror  of  those  times  which  the 
present  or  future  can  never  reflect  and  can  never 
be  revivified  by  historian,  poet,  or  novelist.  Its 
pastoral  idyls  and  romances,  its  poems  and  sacred 
songs,  are  imrivaled  and  peerless.  Its  religion, 
divested  of  the  fables  and  mysticisms  which 
obscure  some  of  its  pages,  is  divine.  Man  has 
evolved  from  its  allegorical  sketches  and  parables 
many  various  philosophies,  degrading  conceptions 
of  human  nature,  and  horrible  creeds  of  infinite 
hate  and  eternal  torments.     These  creeds,  if  any 


368  Evolution  of  Religions 

sanction  at  all  is  given  to  them  in  the  pages  of  the 
Bible,  are  either  based  on  perversions  of  alle- 
gorical teachings,  or  framed  from  fantasies  of  the 
bigots  of  the  Dark  Ages,  inten\^oven  by  them  into 
the  original  text, — delusions, — in  harmony  with  the 
superstitions  of  the  age,  and  are  contrary  to  the 
higher  and  nobler  revelations  of  Deity.  Some 
of  the  teachings  of  New  Testament  books  seem  to 
sanction  such  creeds,  but  if  so,  they  are  at  variance 
with  their  general  tenor  and  grander  truths,  and 
with  the  whole  divine  economy,  clearly  revealed 
in  the  Bible  as  a  system  of  truth,  and  are,  there- 
fore, foreign  growths. 

The  geology  of  the  Genesis  narrative  of  creation 
is,  so  far  as  it  goes  and  rightly  understood,  correct, 
and  its  general  features  are  indorsed  by  modem 
science,  whilst  the  philosophies  of  Egyptian, 
Babylonian,  Chinese,  Greek,  and  other  ancient 
scholars,  are  worthless.  The  astronomy  of  the 
Bible  is,  of  course,  only  what  astronomers  of  olden 
times  were  able  to  learn  of  the  celestial  bodies  by 
their  unaided  visions  and  crude  geometry  without 
assistance  of  photographic,  spectroscopic,  or  tele- 
scopic instruments.  Evidently  inspiration  did 
not  extend  to  communicating  a  knowledge  of 
the  sciences  to  the  ancient  patriarchs  and  sages, 
it  only  gave  them  religious  light. 

In  the  literature  of  the  world,  our  Bible's  place 
is  forever  fixed.  There  is  no  occasion  for  a  new 
one.     Mohammed,    Emanuel     Swedenborg,    and 


Conclusion  369 

Joseph  Smith  sought  to  supplant,  or  add  to,  the 
Bible,  by  imaginary  later  revelations,  but  the 
Al-Koran,  Book  of  ]\Iormon,  and  Swedenborg's 
Apocalypse,  are  but  travesties  of  the  grand  old 
Book.  A  good  Jew  or  Christian  does  not  want 
any  new  Bible  or  paraphrase  of  the  old.  A 
philosophic  Atheist  cannot  write  a  new  Bible, 
because  he  does  not  believe  in  a  God  or  a  future 
life,  and  he  cannot  frame  any  newer  or  better 
ethics  for  the  world  than  is  found  in  the  Scriptures. 
Nor  could  an  Agnostic,  who  professes  to  know 
nothing  of  God  and  doubts  everything,  do  any 
better.  Nor  could  the  Deist  who  believes  in  a 
God,  but  denies  or  doubts  revelations  from  Him, 
improve  on  the  character  of  the  God  of  the  Bible, 
or  formulate  any  better  or  purer  code  of  morals. 
Good  Christians  and  profound  scholars,  like 
Sir  Isaac  Newton,  Dr.  Briggs,  Mueller,  or  Dr. 
Channing,  could  not  write  a  Bible  which  would 
supplant  the  old  one,  because  they  could  neither 
improve  its  ethics  nor  teach  anything  new  of 
God.  They  might  eliminate  some  historical  errors, 
some  of  the  legendary  miracles,  and  some  of  the 
Alosaic  laws  and  ordinances  from  the  Bible,  but 
its  great  value  as  a  faithful  mirror  of  the  ages  in 
which  it  was  written  would  be  thus  impaired, 
and  its  grandeur  destroyed.  No !  The  records  of 
the  Bible  and  its  place  in  the  literature  of  the 
world,  like  the  ancient  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  and 
Sanskrit  classics,  are  fixed,  sealed,  and  immutable. 


370  Evolution  of  Religions 

The  world  will  never  have  and  never  need  another 
Bible,  unless  the  Almighty  should  hereafter 
reveal  the  wonderful  secrets  of  His  being,  —  as  He 
never  has  yet,  —  and  the  veiled  mysteries  of 
immortality  and  eternity. 

The  twentieth  century  of  the  Christian  era  is  in 
its  dawn.  Judging  from  the  great  events  and  won- 
derful progress  of  the  century  just  closed,  and  the 
prospective  results  of  the  religious,  educational, 
industrial,  political,  social  and  economic  forces 
now  in  operation  all  over  the  world,  the  new 
century  bids  fair  to  be  the  grandest  era  of  human 
progress,  and  educational,  social,  and  religious 
development,  the  world  has  ever  seen  since  the 
beginning  of  historic  time.  Steam  and  electricity, 
operating  railways,  ships,  telegraphs,  telephones, 
and  other  mechanical  appHances,  have  already 
united  all  countries  in  what  should  be  peaceful 
bonds  of  trade  and  economic  and  social  inter- 
course, as  never  before,  and  as  not  even  dreamed 
of  in  the  wildest  flights  of  human  imagination  a 
century  ago.  We  can  converse  and  do  business 
at  our  homes  in  one  day  in  most  of  the  cities  and 
villages  of  civilized  countries  with  the  dwellers  of 
America,  Europe,  India,  China,  Japan,  Arabia, 
Egypt,  South  Africa,  Australia,  and  most  of  the 
Islands  of  the  oceans.  Time  and  distance  are 
almost  annihilated.  Doubtless  other  scientific 
and  mechanical  inventions  and  improvements  in 
all  these  and  other  lines,  and  indeed  in  everything 


Conclusion  371 

pertaining  to  human  welfare,  in  commerce,  travel, 
social  and  religious  intercourse,  will  yet  be  made. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  race  with  the  other  affiliated 
branches  of  the  great  Germanic,  Teutonic,  and 
Scandinavian  family,  will,  judging  from  the  trend 
of  events  in  the  past  two  centuries,  in  the  not 
very  distant  future,  control  the  world  and  the 
English  languages,  become,  approximately,  the 
universal  language.  Such  seems,  manifest  des- 
tiny, and  no  second  Tower  of  Babel  will  need 
to  be  erected  to  preserve  unity  of  speech.  Na- 
tions are  coming  more  and  more  into  fraternal 
and  political  harmony.  Difficulties  will  naturally 
sometimes  arise,  and  wars  for  a  time  may  yet 
occur,  but  peace  congresses  and  national  arbi- 
trations of  troubles  and  disagreements,  added 
to  the  closer  assimilation  of  religious  thought 
and  feelings,  through  the  general  diffusion  of 
rational  Christianity,  will  surely  prevent  the 
past  frequency  of  wars  and  mitigate  the  ruin 
and  suffering  caused  heretofore,  when  they  do 
occur. 

The  results  of  the  war  of  1898,  between  the 
United  States  and  Spain,  in  the  acquisition  of 
Porto  Rico  and  the  Philippine  Islands,  with  the 
prestige  thereby  gained  to  the  United  States, 
and  the  addition  of  territory  and  population,  will 
imdoubtedly  greatly  extend  our  commerce  and 
intercourse  with  all  nations,  and  tend  to  the  wider 
diffusion  of  the  principles  of  civil  and  religious 


372  Evolution  of  Religions 

liberty  and  the  general  welfare  of  mankind.  The 
peaceful  annexation  of  Cuba  to  the  United  States, 
we  beheve  will,  in  the  not  very  distant  future, 
occur.  The  successful  conclusion  of  the  war  in 
the  Philippines  and  the  pacification  of  those 
fertile  and  beautiful  islands  under  the  good 
government  which  the  United  States  has  given 
them,  is  a  fait  accompli.  The  acquisition,  a  few 
years  ago,  of  the  "gems  of  the  Pacific,"  the  lovely 
and  salubrious  Hawaiian  Islands  with  their 
charming  climate  and  great  production  of  sugar, 
tropical  fruits,  etc.,  was  a  most  valuable  and 
important  addition  to  our  territorial  area.  The 
magnificent  possibilities  which  may  result  to  our 
country  from  the  acquisition  of  all  those  islands 
are  yet  in  embryo,  but  imdoubtedly  will  be  won- 
derful. 

In  the  winter  of  1 898-1 899,  through  the  court- 
esy of  Hon.  John  D.  Long,  Secretary  of  the  Navy, 
the  writer  had  the  great  pleasure  of  making  a 
trip  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands  in  the  elegant  United 
States  vessel,  the  yacht  "Iroquois,"  Lieutenant 
Commander  Charles  F.  Pond,  U.  S.  N.,  com- 
manding, with  the  writer's  son.  Lieutenant  B.  B. 
Bierer,  and  Lieutenant  G.  L.  P.  Stone,  assistants. 
He  remained  there  several  months  enjoying  the 
grand  scenery  of  ocean  and  of  all  those  islands  and 
peerless  climate,  the  finest  and  most  equable  in 
the  world.  The  acquisition  of  the  Hawaiian  and 
Spanish  islands  in  connection  with  the  war  with 


Conclusion  373 

Spain,  and  the  happy  settlement  of  the  more  recent 
troubles  in  China,  with  his  wise  domestic  policy, 
will  make  ever  memorable  the  administration  of 
our  lamented  President,  WiUiam  McKinley,  and 
intensify  our  horror  of  the  cowardly  and  brutal 
assassination  of  so  pure,  lovable,  and  patriotic  a 
man.  Indeed,  with  the  exception  of  Washington 
and  Lincoln's,  we  think  his  administration,  un- 
timely shortened  as  it  was,  the  most  illustrious 
and  important  in  our  history. 

The  late  war  in  South  Africa  between  Great 
Britain  and  her  neighbors  of  the  Orange  Free 
States  and  Transvaal  Republic,  was  most  deplor- 
able, but  we  believe  will  eventually  result  for  the 
best  welfare  of  the  people  of  those  states,  in  their 
incorporation  and  consolidation  with  the  other 
British  domains  in  that  region,  and  the  formation 
of  a  great  South  African  State,  which  will  be 
nominally  for  years  a  part  of  the  British  Empire, 
but  which  will  doubtless  eventually  become 
independent  with  a  president  appointed  by  the 
crown,  but  under  a  republican  constitution  and 
form  of  government,  similar  to  the  late  federation 
of  all  the  provinces  of  Australia.  That  South 
African  Federation  will  doubtless  continue  to  ex- 
pand as  the  United  States  of  America  did,  taking 
in  additional  surrounding  territories  of  the  im- 
civilized  tribes,  becoming  in  time  a  great  African 
Empire,  Christianizing  and  educating  all  the 
"Dark  Continent"  and  assisting  in  the  develop- 


374  Evolution  of  Religions 

merit  of  all  the  great  and  varied  resources  of  that 
wonderful  region  of  the  world. 

The  great  war  between  Russia  and  Japan  lately 
terminated  will  undoubtedly  have  a  wonderful  in- 
fluence upon  the  future  destinies  of  those  empires, 
politically  and  otherwise,  and  its  results  be  of 
momentous  importance  to  all  the  world,  and  espe- 
cially to  Russia,  Japan,  and  China,  in  the  develop- 
ment of  more  liberal  institutions  in  those  countries 
and  in  all  the  Old  World  and  in  the  broadening  of 
commercial  relations  between  all  nations,  and  the 
more  rapid  diffusion  of  liberal  Christianity.  The 
United  States  and  Great  Britain  nominally,  and 
really  morally,  allies;  if  they  continue  as  now 
and  for  many  years  past,  to  act  in  harmony  on  all 
foreign  questions,  as  they  certainly  should;  with 
their  great  colonial  possessions,  girdling  the  earth 
and  dominating  the  oceans,  with  institutions 
though  dissimilar,  really  both  democratic  and  rest- 
ing on  the  consent  of  the  governed,  will  doubt- 
less in  the  present  century  virtually  rule  the  world, 
if  both  continue  to  be  governed  wisely  and  patrioti- 
cally, largely  shaping  the  world's  future  progress 
and  history.  In  the  years  of  this  century,  we  be- 
lieve the  Christian  religion,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  great  powers  of  Europe  and  America,  judging 
from  its  rapid  extension  during  the  past  century, 
and  allowing  for  the  more  Hberal  and  attractive 
teachings  of  missionaries  and  interpretations  and 
translations  of  the  Bible  text  by  the  best  modem 


Conclusion  375 

scholars,  as  compared  with  the  old  dogmatic 
versions,  lessening  the  points  of  antagonism  be- 
tween it  and  all  other  religions,  will  spread  over 
all  the  earth,  and  intelligent  people  in  all  lands 
will  come  to  recognize  and  adopt  it  as  the  truest, 
the  best,  the  ultimate  religion  of  the  world.  Then 
all  men,  when  that  time  comes,  will  hail  their 
fellow-men  as  brothers,  worshiping  with  them  in 
the  same  temples,  as  children  of  the  same 
Heavenly  Father,  and  inheritors  by  right  of  birth 
of  the  same  eternal  destiny.  We  anticipate  no 
future  divine  revelation,  no  new  Bible,  but  so 
great  has  been  the  progress  of  the  race,  and  so 
astonishing  the  wonderful  achievements  of  science 
in  the  century  just  closed,  that  sometimes  we 
fancy,  in  the  not  very  remote  future,  the  mystic 
veil  between  time  and  eternity,  between  life 
and  death,  the  visible  and  invisible,  may  be  drawn 
aside  and  mortals  be  permitted  to  see  into  the 
spirit  land  and  hold  converse  with  the  immortals. 
Are  these  merely  visionary  dreams?  Not  if  the 
Bible  is  inspired,  for  it  says  the  day  is  coming, 
"when  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  shall  cover  the 
earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  seas,  when  nations 
shall  not  lift  up  the  sword  against  nations,  neither 
shall  they  learn  war  any  more,  and  when  all 
people  shall  know  God,  even  from  the  least  unto 
the  greatest." 

We  will  close   with  four  stanzas  from   Derz- 
havin's  Ode. 


376  Evolution  of  Religions 

TO   GOD 
I 

"Oh  Thou  Eternal  One  whose  presence  bright, 
All  space  doth  occupy,  all  motion  guide, 
Unchanged  through  time's  all  devastating  flight 
Thou  Only  God,  there  is  no  God  beside, 
Being  above  all  beings,  Mighty  One, 
Whom  none  can  comprehend  and  none  explore. 
Who  fiU'st  existence  with  Thyself  alone, 
Embracing  all,  supporting,  ruling  o'er. 
Being  whom  we  call  God,  and  know  no  more. 

II 
Thou  from  primeval  nothingness  didst  call. 
First  chaos,  then  existence.    Lord,  on  Thee, 
Eternity  hath  its  foundation,  all 
Sprung  forth  from  Thee;  of  light,  joy,  harmony, 
Sole  origin.     All  life,  all  beauty  Thine: 
Thy  word  created  all,  and  doth  create. 
Thy  splendor  fills  all  space  with  rays  divine. 
Thou  art  and  wert  and  shall  be  glorious,  great, 
Light-giving,  life-sustaining  potentate. 

Ill 
Thou  art,  directing,  guiding,  all,  Thou  art; 
Direct  my  understanding,  then,  to  Thee. 
Control  my  spirit,  guide  my  wandering  heart. 
Though  but  an  atom  'midst  immensity, 
Still  I  am  something  fashioned  by  thy  hand. 
I  hold  a  middle  rank'  twixt  heaven  and  earth. 
On  the  last  verge  of  mortal  being  stand. 
Close  to  the  realms  where  Angels  have  their  birth, 
Just  on  the  boundaries  of  the  spirit  land. 


Conclusion  377 

IV 

Creator,  yes ;  Thy  wisdom  and  Thy  word 
Created  me;  Thou  source  of  Hfe  and  good, 
Thou  spirit  of  my  spirit,  and  my  Lord. 
Thy  Hght,  Thy  love  in  their  bright  plenitude, 
Filled  me  with  an  immortal  soul  to  spring 
Over  the  abyss  of  death,  and  bade  it  wear 
The  garments  of  eternal  day,  and  wing 
Its  heavenly  flight  beyond  this  little  sphere. 
Even  to  the  source,  to  Thee  its  Author  there." 


APPENDIX 

Note  A.  Briggs'  "Study  of  Holy  Scripture," 
page  287.  "It  may  be  regarded  as  the  certain 
result  of  the  science  of  the  Higher  Criticism  that 
Moses  did  not  write  the  Pentateuch  or  Job.  Ezra 
did  not  write  the  Chronicles,  Ezra,  or  Nehemiah; 
Jeremiah  did  not  write  the  Book  of  the  Kings  or 
Lamentations;  David  did  not  write  the  Psalter, 
but  only  a  few  of  the  Psalms;  Solomon  did  not 
write  the  Song  of  Songs  or  Ecclesiastes,  and  only 
a  portion  of  the  Proverbs ;  Isaiah  did  not  write 
half  the  book  that  bears  his  name.  The  great 
mass  of  the  Old  Testament  was  written  by  authors 
whose  names  or  connection  with  their  writings 
are  lost  in  oblivion.  If  this  is  destroying  the 
Bible,  the  Bible  is  destroyed  already.  But  who 
tells  us  that  these  traditional  names  were  the 
authors  of  the  Bible?  The  Bible  itself?  The 
creeds  of  the  Church?  Any  reliable  historical 
testimony?  None  of  these!  Pure  conjectural 
tradition.     Nothing  more." 

Note  B.  Many  of  the  ancient  Fathers  were 
of  this  belief;  among  others,  Clement  of  Alex- 
andria, Tertullian,  Chrysostom,  Augustine,  and 
Irenseus.     The  latter  wrote  in  Adv.   Horeses  iii, 

378 


Appendix  379 

21-22:  "  During  the  captivity  of  the  people  under 
Nebuchadnezzar,  the  Scriptures  had  been  cor- 
rupted, and  when  after  seventy  years  the  Jews 
had  returned  to  their  owtl  lands,  then  in  the  time 
of  Artaxerxes,  king  of  the  Persians,  God  in- 
spired Esdras,  the  priest  of  the  tribe  of  Levi,  to 
recast  all  the  words  of  former  prophets  and  to 
reestablish  with  the  people  the  Mosaic  legis- 
lation." 

Note  C.  "  But  is  there  not  some  testimony  as 
to  authorship  in  the  biblical  books  apart  from 
titles?  Yes,  a  little.  In  the  Hexateuch,  Num. 
xxi,  14  cites  a  poetic  extract  from  the  books 
of  the  wars  of  Jahveh.  Jos.  x  12,  13,  cites  a 
section  of  an  ode  of  the  battle  of  Beth-horon 
from  the  Book  of  Jasher.  The  Book  of  Jasher 
is  also  cited  in  II  Sam.  i,  18,  where  a  dirge  of 
David  is  given.  It  is  also  cited  in  LXX  version 
of  I  Kings,  viii,  12,  with  a  poetic  extract  from 
Solomon.  The  Book  of  Jasher,  containing  poems 
from  David  and  Solomon,  could  not  have  been 
written  before  Solomon.  The  writing  which  cites 
the  Book  of  Jasher  must  have  been  written  after 
the  Book  of  Jasher.  If  now,  as  modem  critics 
imanimously  hold,  the  Book  of  Joshua  and  the 
Pentateuch  belong  together  as  a  Hexateuch,  then 
it  is  the  testimony  of  the  Hexateuch  itself  that 
it  could  not  have  been  written  in  its  present  form 
before  the  time  of  David  or  Solomon."  —  Briggs* 
"The  Bible,  the  Church,  the  Reason,"  page  137. 


380  Evolution  of  Religions 

Note  D.  "The  primitive  sources  of  biblical  his- 
tory are  mythologies,  legends,  poems,  laws,  whether 
inscribed,  written,  or  traditional,  historical  docu- 
ments and  the  use  of  the  historical  imagination. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  there  is  a  strong 
mythological  element  at  the  basis  of  biblical 
history  as  well  as  of  other  ancient  histories. 
The  myth  is  indeed  the  most  primitive  historic 
form  and  mold,  in  which  that  which  is  most 
ancient  is  transmitted  from  primitive  peoples. 
There  are  such  myths  in  the  stories  of  the  Book 
of  Genesis  and  in  the  poetry  of  Job,  Isaiah, 
Ezekiel,  Zechariah,  and  not  a  few  of  the  Psalms," 
—  Idem.  Briggs,  page  555. 

Note  E.  "  The  Zend  A  vesta.  IVIany  interested, 
but  necessarily  honest  readers,  of  the  Zend  Avesta 
overlook  the  fact  that  in  the  ancient  documents 
comprised  under  that  name,  we  have  works  of 
many  different  ages ;  that  from  leaf  to  leaf  matters 
come  before  them  made  up  of  pieces  nearly  or 
quite  dissimilar,  and  sometimes  separated  as  to 
the  dates  of  their  authorship  by  many  hundreds  of 
years.  They  are  accordingly  apt  to  make  them- 
selves merry  over  absurdities  which  prevail  in  the 
later  but  still  genuine  Avesta,  as  if  they  were 
peculiar  to  the  original  Zoroastrian  writing. 
It  is  at  present  intended  to  call  attention  to  the 
now  undoubted  and  long  since  suspected  fact  that 
it  pleased  the  Divine  Power  to  reveal  some  of  the 
most   important  articles    of   our  catholic  creed. 


Appendix  381 

first  to  Zoroaster,  and  through  their  literature  to 
the  Jews  and  ourselves.  Surely  the  first  object  of 
religion,  next  to  the  suppression  of  unlawful 
violence  or  appropriation,  should  be  the  sup- 
pression of  inaccurate  statement;  and  to  deny 
without  any  effort  to  become  an  expert,  what  every 
expert  knows  to  be  the  truth,  is,  so  it  seems  to 
me,  to  commit  a  crime  in  the  name  of  Christianity, 
for  which  Christianity  will  one  day  be  called  to 
account. 

"It  is  therefore  to  help  the  Church  against 
well-furnished  gainsayers,  and  to  reestablish  her 
character  for  conscientious  investigation,  that  some 
Christian  specialists  in  orientalism  have  given  the 
best  years  of  their  lives  to  save  the  endeared 
religion  which  once  inculcated  every  honorable 
sentiment  from  continuing  herself  the  victim  of 
that  most  sinister  of  equivocation  known  as 
'pious  frauds.'  How,  then,  should  we  handle 
the  question  of  Zoroastrian  influence  with  the 
Jews  ?  I  would  say  that  any  or  all  of  the  historical, 
doctrinal,  or  hortative  statements  in  the  Old  or  the 
New  Testament  might,  while  fervently  believed 
to  be  inspired  by  the  Divine  Power,  be  yet  freely 
traced  to  other  religious  systems  for  their  mental 
initiative,  that  the  historical  origin  of  particular 
doctrines  or  ideas  which  are  expressed  in  the 
Old  or  New  Testament  does  not  touch  the  ques- 
tion of  their  inspiration,  unless  we  are  prepared  to 
accede  to  a  docetic  heresy  doubting  the  reality  of 


3^2  Evolution  of  Religions 

our  Savior's  human  nature.  Every  sentiment  of 
veneration  ought  to  induce  us  to  trace,  if  it  be 
possible  to  trace  them,  not  only  the  foimtain 
heads  of  His  human  convictions,  but  the  supply- 
ing rills  of  His  expressions.  If  we  carefully  study 
the  genealogy  of  His  body,  with  how  much  greater 
earnestness  should  we  examine  those  of  His  mind. 
For  it  was  His  thoughts,  humanly  speaking,  and 
sometimes  His  earHer  ones,  which  not  only  con- 
stituted a  part  of  His  momentous  history,  but  of 
course  also  actually  determined  His  career.  The 
theologies  of  Egypt  should  be  also  examined, 
as  well  as  those  of  Greece  and  Rome. 

"  From  India  we  have  what  seems  a  throng  of 
rich  analogies  from  the  Buddhist  Scriptures. 
There  remains  the  ancient  Persian  theology,  and 
here  the  historical  connection  amounts  at  one 
stage  at  least  to  historical  identity,  and  is  as 
such,  I  believe,  universally  recognized.  Cyrus, 
the  Persian,  brought  the  Jewish  people  back  when 
they  had  become  a  captive  people,  and  rebuilt 
Jerusalem  when  it  had  become  a  heap,  and  book 
after  book  of  the  Bible  dates  from  the  reigns  of 
the  Persian  kings,  while  Magian  priests,  who 
were  of  the  reHgion  of  Cyrus,  came  later  to  do 
honor  to  the  Son  of  Mary,  and  one  of  the  last 
words  of  Jesus  upon  the  cross  was  from  the 
Persian  tongue :  '  Verily  I  say  unto  thee,  To-day 
shalt  thou  be  with  me  in  Paradise '  (Luke  xxiii, 
43).   Cyrus  was  originally,  or  at  heart,  a  Mazda 


Appendix  383 

worshiper.     The  word  'Mazda'   (strictly  'Dah') 
meaning    the   'Great     Creator'   or    the     'Great 
Wise   One,'   is   an  especially  well-adapted  name 
for  God,  much  more  so  than  our  own  name  for 
Him,  and   this  revering  title  well  expresses  the 
enlightened    tone   of   the    book    (Zend    Avesta). 
If,   then,  any  ancient    volume    could    claim    our 
attention,  it  would  seem  to  be  the  Sacred  Scrip- 
tures of  that  great  ]\lazda  worshiper,  who  under 
the    providence    of    God    determined    the    later 
history  of  the  Jewish  people.     For  had  Cyrus,  the 
Mazda  worshiper,  not  brought  the  people  back  to 
Jerusalem,    the   later   prophets   might  not  have 
spoken  there,  nor  might  Jesus  have  been  bom  at 
Bethlehem,  nor  taught  in  that  region.     Indeed, 
the  influence  of  the  great  restorer  Cyrus  and  his 
successors   over   the   city   was   so   positive   that 
Jerusalem  was  for  a  considerable  period  after  the 
return  from  Babylon  in  many  respects  a  Persian 
city.     Some  of  the  most  important  features  of  the 
Pharisaic  orthodoxy  were,  imder  the  providence 
of  God,  taught  directly,   or  indirectly,    through 
the  Persian  influence;  the  name  ' Pharisee '  itself 
being    the  equivalent    of  'Farsee,*  a  later  form 
of  '  Parsee.' 

"  Few  scientific  theologians  will  deny  that  the 
doctrine  of  immortality  was  scarcely  mooted 
before  the  captivity,  while  the  Zoroastrian  Scrip- 
tures are  one  mass  of  spiritualism,  referring  all 
results  to  the  heavenly  or  infernal  worlds.     Ame- 


384  Evolution  of  Religions 

retatat, —  immortality, —  as  one  of  the  six  per- 
sonified, attributes  of  the  Deity,  did  not  represent 
long  life  alone,  but  never  dying  life.  Resurrec- 
tion seems  to  be  placed  after  the  reception  of 
souls  into  heaven,  as  if  they  returned  later  to  a 
purified  earth.  And  is  this  really  not  the  doc- 
trine of  St,  John's  Revelation?  In  Yasht  xix,  83, 
we  have  resurrection  together  with  millennial 
perfection.  '  We  sacrifice  imto  the  kingly  glory 
which  shall  cleave  tmto  the  victorious  Savior  and 
His  companions,  when  He  shall  make  the  world 
progress  imto  perfection,  and  when  it  shall  be 
never  dying,  not  decaying,  never  rotting,  ever 
living,  ever  useful,  having  power  to  fulfil  all  wishes ; 
when  the  dead  shall  arise  and  immortal  life  shall 
come,  when  the  settlements  shall  be  all  death- 
less.* Compare  these  then  with  statements 
which  appear  after  the  return  from  the  captivity, 
a  captivity  during  which  the  Jews  had  come  in 
contact  with  a  great  religion,  in  which  the  pas- 
sages cited  described  a  predominant  tendency. 
What  do  we  find  in  them?  First,  we  have  the 
jubilant  hope  expressed  by  the  later  Isaiah, 
'Let  thy  dead  live,  let  my  body  arise.  Awake 
and  sing,  ye  that  dwell  in  the  dust !  For  thy  dew 
is  as  the  dew  of  herbs,  and  the  earth  shall  cast 
forth  the  shades.*  And  then  the  full  statement  in 
Daniel:  'And  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the 
dust  of  the  earth  shall  awake,  some  to  ever- 
lasting life,  and  some  to  everlasting  shame  and 


Appendix  385 

contempt.'  And  yet,  as  we  have  seen  above, 
God's  people  had  not  fully  accepted  the  meaning 
of  this  language  at  the  time  of  Christ.  We  draw 
this  inference,  the  religion  of  the  Jews  was  origi- 
nally Saddusaic." — "  Zoroaster  and  the  Bible,"  by 
Rev.  J.  H.  Mills,  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  Janu- 
ary, 1894. 


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